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.”
It is in the French château style on a small scale, and has lovely
old-fashioned gardens, quite unspoiled, with some rare trees growing in
them. At the end of the last garden flows the Avon, and picturesque
Durnford Church stands close by. In 1869 Mr. Pinckney bought the house
and some of the estate from the Earl of Malmesbury.