After Vita's death, her cousin Eddie Sackville-West (Lord Sackville) wrote that "it is all very sad and one wonders what on earth will happen to that lovely garden. As long as Harold lives, I suppose it will continue the same......but people's gardens are apt to die with them, even if the status quo is kept - or because of that."
Eddie had inherited Vita's childhood home of Knole, which vita couldn't inherit because she was female. Knole had become unaffordable to maintain, so it had been made over to the National Trust. For Vita, this was like losing her beloved Knole all over again and she was determined that one of her sons would maintain Sissinghurst after her death, but her older son Benedict made it clear that he wasn't interested, so she left it to Nigel, her younger son. Nigel had tried to discuss the possibility of turning over Sissinghurst to the National Trust, but Vita's response was to write in her diary: "Never, never, never. Au grand jamais, jamais. Never, never, never. not that hard little plate at my door. Nigel can do what he likes when I am dead, but as long as I live no Nat. Trust or any other foreign body shall have my darling".
The heavy inhertance taxes of post-war Britain forced Ben and Nigel to turn over Sissinghurst to the National Trust after Vita's death. The only other option was to sell the farmland surrounding the castle and they didn't want to risk having the farmland developed. By choosing the National Trust, they insured that the surrounding would be maintained in exactly the same manner as it had been during Vita's lifetime. Vita probably knew that this would be necessary, because she left a message to Nigel to be read after her death, in which she wrote that she would understand if he gave Sissinghurst to the National Trust.
The National Trust had been set up in 1895 as a way to preserve England's coastline and countryside from uncontrolled development. While there was a minor emphasis on the preservation of historic buildings, there was an assumption that the nobility and gentry would always be able to maintain their ancestral homes. By the end of World War II, estate taxes had become so heavy that many of these homes had become white elephants which people dreaded having to inherit. In 1946, the National Land Fund was established. This fund was primarily for the purchase of land, but it also allowed houses to be accepted in lieu of estate duties. There was the risk that these houses would become shells as their contents were sold off, so in the 1950's the National Land Fund was expanded to include family collections of art and furniture.
