A pretty old house on the road-side, belonging to Sir Edmund Antrobus, built of stone and flint. The interior has been much altered and spoilt. Traces of a monastic building exist in the beams supporting the roof, and in a church doorway at the top of the staircase. These date from the fifteenth century. Aubrey informs us that this house and property, along with Stonehenge, once formed the dowry of the wife of Lord Ferrers of Chartley. The village of West Amesbury possesses some picturesque thatched cottages, and on an outside wall of one is a rude sketch of fighting cocks and their backers.
WILSFORD HOUSE.
A house on the banks of the Avon, built by the late Mr. Loder, of Salisbury, two miles from Amesbury. It is of the modern “villa” description. In 1898 Mr. Young purchased it from Sir E. Loder, and re-sold it to Mr. Edward Tennant in 1900. None of the places described along the Avon Valley are open to the public, but they can be seen from the high road.
LAKE HOUSE,
situated on the banks of the Avon, is in the parish of Wilsford, and about three miles south of Amesbury. The exact date of its foundation is uncertain. Its main features are Elizabethan, but an old letter in the possession of the family clearly suggests an earlier date. “As to ye date of ye house,” says the correspondent, “I do not remember anything in that beautifully written deed to which you refer that would bear on it. Great weight would belong to any opinion expressed by ye late J. H. Parker, and you told me that you thought it might be as early as Edward VI. or earlier, and probably Parker judged only by what he saw, and ye architectural features that remain have in them nothing distinctive in comparison with those what have vanished.” Lake House is one of the most beautiful in this neighbourhood, and is built of the usual stone and flint; it possesses yew hedges and delightful old-fashioned gardens sloping to the river. It was purchased in 1591 by George Duke, and it remained in the Duke family till 1897, when (just in time to save the old house from utter ruin) it was bought by Mr. J. N. Lovibond, and most beautifully restored by the architect, Mr. Detmar Blow, according to the views of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. There are barrows in the park at Lake, and many curious objects, such as amber necklaces, &c., were discovered in them about fifty years ago during excavations made by the late Mr. Duke. Some of the things then found are in the British Museum. A cottage industry is now carried on in the village of Lake: a sort of rough tweed in pretty colours being made in hand looms by the women. This tweed is called “Stonehenge” cloth, and is not expensive.
GREAT DURNFORD CHURCH.
Leaving Amesbury, and following the eastern banks of the Avon, we come to Great Durnford. Its name is derived from the British word “dur,” signifying water. The church is most picturesque, and is built of stone and flint, with very rich Norman north and south doorways and chancel arch. The font is Norman, with an interesting arcade. The pulpit is of oak and dated 1619, and has a very old velvet cover with 1657 worked on it. Built into the wall of the church is a stone coffin containing a skeleton, supposed to be that of the founder. Traces of two doors leading to the rood loft can still be seen, and in one window are the remains of some very old glass. Inside the south door are several curious crosses, supposed to be dedication crosses. In the chancel is a leper’s window. The altar rails are of oak, and date back to the sixteenth century. The pattern on the walls is the same as that found some years ago under the plaster and whitewash. There is a curious brass to the memory of Edward Young, his wife, and fourteen children, dated 1670. In the chancel, chained to an ancient desk, is a copy of Jewel’s “Apologie of the Church of England,” ordered by Convocation after the Reformation, 1571.
GREAT DURNFORD HOUSE
was once a seat of the Hungerfords. Evelyn notes in his Diary, July, 1654:—“We dined at a ferme of my Uncle Hungerford’s called Darneforde magna, situate in a valley under the plaine, most sweetly watered, abounding in troutes, catched by speares in the night when they come attracted by a light set in ye sterne of a boate.”