Knole, the vast house and estate of the Sackville family, earls and dukes of Dorset, dates from the fifteenth century, although there were many alterations in the following two hundred years. The Cartoon Gallery is the richest of all the fine state rooms, named after the copies of Raphael's celebrated cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestries. The surrounds of the high windows are elaborately carved, coloured, and gilded, and the ceiling is covered with delicate plasterwork of floral motifs. Nash was an accomplished architectural draughtsman, and he produced highly-wrought watercolour views of the exteriors and interiors of historic domestic buildings (see also cat.no.94). Figures, usually in historic costume, are shown in conversation, satisfying that nineteenth-century nostalgia for the 'olden time', the golden age of Queen Elizabeth I and her immediate successors.