Petworth

Petworth is an easy quarter of an hour from the estate, straight along the A272 — one of those drives where the road itself, rolling through Cowdray parkland and past Lodsworth, is part of the treat. The town huddles hard against the wall of its great house, all cobbled lanes, crooked roofs and shopfronts; the house and park behind the wall are the reason most people come, and rightly so.

Petworth House, now in the care of the National Trust, holds the Trust's finest art collection — and it is not close. The star is J.M.W. Turner, who found a patron and a friend in the 3rd Earl of Egremont, kept a studio in the house, and painted the park's lakes and sunsets repeatedly; a room of his work still hangs here, in the landscape that inspired it, which is a rare and rather moving thing. Around the Turners are Van Dycks, classical sculpture, and the Carved Room lined with limewood carving by Grinling Gibbons of a virtuosity that stops visitors mid-sentence. Give the house a couple of hours and check opening days and times before you travel — hours vary through the year, and National Trust membership pays for itself quickly around here.

The 700-acre park was landscaped by Capability Brown and is grazed by a herd of several hundred fallow deer, among the largest in England. Turner painted it; you will photograph it. The park is free to enter on foot and open daily, with a car park off the A283 on the north side — from there it is a lovely half-hour amble down past the upper pond to the house front, with deer drifting across the slopes in loose herds. Come early on a misty autumn morning during the October rut, when the bucks groan and clash antlers under the chestnuts, and you will have one of the great Sussex wildlife spectacles almost to yourself. Birdlife is good too: green woodpeckers bounding between the anthills, nuthatches and treecreepers on the veteran oaks, ravens cronking overhead, and wildfowl on the ponds.

Petworth town has quietly become one of the antiques capitals of the south of England: dozens of dealers, galleries and interiors shops packed into a few medieval streets, particularly around Lombard Street and the market square. Even confirmed non-shoppers enjoy an hour of window-gazing, and there are good cafés and delis to punctuate it. If your tastes run to browsing rather than buying, the window displays alone — from Georgian furniture to mid-century oddities — make it the best free gallery in the district. The streets are narrow and parking in the centre is tight — the main pay-and-display car park is signed off the road in from Midhurst, and on busy weekends it is simplest to park once and walk everything.

• Dogs — welcome in the park on leads (this is a deer park with livestock; in the rut especially, give the deer generous space). Assistance dogs only in the house.
• Timing — the park is at its best early and late in the day; the house is quietest midweek. Autumn is the season here: rutting deer, turning trees and low golden light Turner would have recognised.
• Walking and cycling — the Serpent Trail passes through Petworth on its winding way between the heaths, so you can arrive from the estate on foot or by bike along quiet paths rather than the A272 if you have the legs for it.
• Combine it — house and park in the morning, a pub lunch at one of the villages between here and Midhurst on the way home, and you have built the classic Hawksfold day out.