Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Salvin.^[2] It contains intricate wood-carvings by Grinling Gibbons (d. 1721). It is the manor house of the manor of Petworth. For centuries it was the southern home for the Percy family, earls of Northumberland.

Petworth is famous for its extensive art collection made by the Northumberland and Seymour/Somerset families and George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751–1837), containing many works by his friend J. M. W. Turner. It also has an expansive deer park, landscaped by Capability Brown, which contains a large herd of fallow deer.

During our visit to Petworth we saw some of the painted elephants that were part of Elmer’s Art Parade.

Our last breakfast in the Grand, as was the first, was enjoyed in the quiet space of the Cyan restaurant rather than the main breakfast room.

It was then time for Mr C to pick up our car and bring it to the front of the hotel whilst I waited in the room for the concierge to assist with our luggage. When the concierge arrived, we had a chuckle about Mr C’s case that had too many wheels and stopped it from holding the door open. He soon fixed that by turning it on its side.

We chatted whilst he loaded the trolley with our luggage. He said that it was a lovely room which I agreed. I mentioned the conference that was taking place in the adjacent rooms during the first few days of our stay. The concierge said that the rooms on either side of the stairway known as Napoleon and Eugenie suites were part of the presidential suite and that the hotel might turn those rooms into bedrooms.

Bags loaded onto the trolley, I suggested I meet him downstairs and he said he would be with me in a couple of minutes. It was more than a couple of minutes before I saw both him and our luggage arrive from the lift area. He was preceded by one of his colleagues who came over to me to apologize for the delay. It was busy and there had been a queue for the lift. It wasn’t a problem for me and I said so.

Meanwhile, Mr C had retrieved our car and was parked outside the front of the hotel despite having experienced a problem with the car parking ticket.

Car loaded up and ready to go, we set off towards Petworth which potentially involved getting stuck in the Bury Triangle again. On this occasion the car park wasn’t full and we were able to park and visit the National Trust property which is essentially an art gallery. There was also a cute elephant artwork trail throughout the grounds. We saw a few on our walks to and from the house but it was too hot and we had limited time to venture further into the estate grounds.

We had hoped to have lunch in the nearby ‘Pop up Toast’ again but unfortunately it was ‘popped down’ and closed. We eventually found a suitable garden centre, part of the Quires chain. I ordered a coronation chicken sandwich and apple juice. The latter arrived in a half pint glass, only vaguely tasting of apple rather than the fresh carton/bottle of apple juice that I was expecting.

We continued on our journey homeward stopping to pick up ingredients for our evening meal; Lemony Pork Piccata. There were delays on the motorway near Birmingham due to a car fire which we observed to be well and truly burnt out when we arrived at the scene.

This delay along with encountering rain on entering the Midlands after days of glorious sunshine down south meant that our ‘Fine Dining’ was enjoyed inside rather than on the patio.

We enjoyed one last breakfast before checking out of the Norfolk Arms ready to travel to our next destination; Brighton.

I succumbed to the temptation and called in at the Wildlife and Wetlands Centre to purchase a pair of binoculars. I tested them out again eventually settling on a pair that I thought would be best for my needs. I had to wait a short while to purchase them due to a long queue of visitors booking in for a day in the wetlands.

Next, we visited the nearby Bignor Roman Villa; a large Roman courtyard villa discovered by George Tupper when he struck a large stone whilst ploughing his farm in 1811. The villa has some interesting and unique finds.

By now it was time for elevenses so we set off for a nearby village. We never arrived in the village due to being repeatedly drawn back into, what we started to call, the Bury triangle. Instead, we ended up at Petworth just in time for lunch. The eagle eyed will realise that Petworth is in completely the opposite direction to Brighton. The National Trust carpark for Petworth House was full so we left and parked next to the deer park hoping that there would be a lunch opportunity there.

We weren’t disappointed, we found the delightfully named ‘Toast Me Up’ tucked away in one corner of the car park. It was perfect and my toasted sandwich was delicious.

After lunch Mr C headed off towards the coast thinking of a coastal drive towards Brighton. Mr C chose to include Bognor Regis in his itinerary. When we arrived, it was every bit as bad as I thought it would be. Next town along the coast Littlehampton where once again we elected not to stop and continued inland straight to Brighton.

We drove straight to our hotel, the Grand, arriving at the drop off point in front of the hotel. We were greeted by 3 suited and bowler-hatted concierges. Mr C was directed to park his car and, before I could get out of the car, the boot was unpacked and they had whisked Mr C away along with our luggage. When he returned to the car, one of the concierges explained how to get to the car park and back to the hotel.

When I eventually got to the room it was WOW! All that I hoped it would be. We left the bags in the walk-in luggage area and went for a stroll around Brighton before returning to freshen up before dining in the French-styled Bistro du Vin. We had intended to dine in the Cyan restaurant at the Grand but we found that it closes early on a Sunday.

We had a brief visit to Weatherspoon’s before taking a leisurely stroll along the seafront back to the hotel for a nightcap in the bar.