Wiltshire Nikolaus Pevsner, Bridget Cherry

From prehistoric Stonehenge and Avebury to railway age Swindon, the rolling countryside of Wiltshire encompasses every aspect of English building. Thirteenth-century Salisbury cathedral is set in a spacious close, within a planned medieval town, which boasts Georgian delights such as Mompesson House. Towns and villages range from Marlborough with its sweeping High Street to the exceptional Lacock, in the shadow of its abbey's remains, remodelled as an eighteenth-century Gothick fantasy. The great country houses include some of the finest in England: Palladian Wilton, with which Inigo Jones was involved, Stourhead set in its evocative classical landscape, the elegant eithteenth-century Bowood and the mellow Bath stone of Corsham Court.