LAKE HOUSE,

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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.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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