If ever a house guaranteed entry into high society it is Blackdown Park, deep in West Sussex polo country. For £9million, Jilly Cooper fans and those with pony-mad daughters can acquire a passport to the polo set. And if you turn out to be less than pukka, there are always other mallet-based society pursuits - Blackdown Park has a croquet lawn “with a view unrivalled in England”, according to its owner, a former chairman of Cowdray Park Polo Club.

Blackdown Park's 136 acres have as neighbours the great estates of Cowdray, Petworth, Arundel and Goodwood. The view, one of the finest in southern England, comes as a big surprise after driving down narrow, deep-set Sussex lanes overarched by woodland. The moment you turn through the gates you have a 55-mile panorama to Devil's Dyke, north of Brighton. As you plunge down the steep drive, the house comes into view only at the last moment, a romantic array of gables and tall chimneys. “I'd been looking for a house around here for two years, up every drive and flying over in a helicopter, and I never saw it once,” says Charles Fraser, 47, who has lived here since 1996 with his wife and three daughters.

The terrain rises steeply on both sides of the house. To the south is a huge mount akin to an Iron Age fort, its flanks planted with massed banks of rhododendrons and azaleas. To the west there is another grand vista to the Hampshire Downs nearly 20 miles away. A cut in the trees proves Fraser's point that “West Sussex is the most wooded county in England”.

A broad series of 17th-century grass terraces framed by newly planted hornbeam hedges descend to the house. To the east Fraser has created a sunken garden brimming with roses, backed by pergolas festooned with more climbing roses. Behind the house is a broad terrace that was once laid out for a party of 600. We climb a hill past a lawn tennis court. The next terrace has a swimming pool flanked by matching octagonal changing rooms.

Returning to the house, we enter through a heavily studded oak door. Over the archway is the date 1640. Fraser explains: “The four central gables date from then, with gabled wings added in the 1840s. Then in 1890 came Sir Frederick Philipson-Stowe, who added a service wing almost doubling the size of the house.”

The plans, drawn up in 1891, hang in the kitchen corridor, detailing the uses of myriad small rooms - bottle room, still room, knife room, china closet, lamp room, brushing room, game and pastry larders. The original fly screens and slate shelves survive. The kitchen itself occupies a whole suite, with food preparation and cooking taking place beneath a Victorian pyramid roof and glass lantern.

Blackdown Park has a wealth of oak panelling in the reception rooms and bedrooms. Fraser points to the pyramids and spheres that are a recurring motif of both woodwork and plaster ceilings as well as richly carved fireplaces. One of the bedrooms is named after Oliver Cromwell, who slept here during the siege of Arundel in 1648. “My Catholic cousins refuse to enter,” he says. His dressing room is a highlight. As a military man (he used to be in the Life Guards) he is determined that not a speck of dust should settle on his immaculate clothes. As the cupboard doors open a fan clicks into action, ensuring that air is blown out not sucked in.

The most charming room is the library: two shelves of false books prove to be hinged flaps concealing Ordnance Survey maps. The Victorian billiard room has a rare Petworth marble fireplace carved with hunting scenes.

Now that his daughters are off to university, Fraser wants to downsize, making way for those who aspire to the upper crust.

Fast facts

What you get: Eight reception rooms, nine bedrooms, five bathrooms, self-contained staff wing, swimming pool, tennis court, stables, 136 acres of gardens, pasture, and woodland. In all, 22,377 sq ft.

Where it is: Four miles from Haslemere in Surrey; trains from Haslemere to Waterloo take 50 minutes. London is 43 miles away via the A3; Chichester is 18 miles away.

Price: £9 million.

Contact: Strutt & Parker , 020-7629 7282, or Knight Frank , 020-7629 8171.

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