Ascott House, Buckinghamshire

Ascott is a half timbered house built in the late 1800s but incorporates an earlier farmhouse building from the early 1600s. It was purchased in 1876 by Baron Mayer de Rothschild, and Leopold de Rothschild hired architect George Devey the following year to change it and enlarge it. Further interior changes were done by Anthony de Rothschild who inherited it in 1937.

Ascott is a paradise for lovers of English and French furniture and Oriental works of art with over 400 pieces. Important paintings from Anthony Rothschild’s collections are also a highlight in the house.

From Ascott there are views of the Chilterns across the Vale of Aylesbury. Thirty acres of gardens contain both formal and natural areas. Specimen trees and shrubs, grass terraces, an evergreen sundial, and a large marble fountain are highlights. Also in the garden are an herbaceous walk, lily pond, sunken garden and Dutch garden.

The house, 261 acres of grounds and the collections in the house were given to the National Trust in 1949 by the owner Anthony de Rothschild.