3 Best Sights in The South, England

Originally built in the 17th century by the Royalist family that fled from Corfe Castle, this grand country house was remodeled in the 19th century by Sir Charles Barry, co-architect of the Houses of Parliament in London, in the style of a lavish 18th-century Venetian palazzo. It contains notable paintings by Titian, Rubens, van Dyck, Tintoretto, and Velásquez as well as a dazzling Spanish Room lined in gilded leather and topped by an ornate gilded ceiling from an early 17th-century Venetian palace. The library has some 1,450 volumes dating from before 1801. There's also a fine collection of Egyptian artifacts, the largest private collection in the country, many placed in the landscaped gardens originally laid out in the 18th century (there's also a Japanese garden with a teahouse) and extensive parklands with walking paths. Admission is by timed guided tour ticket only.

With an emphasis on local archaeological finds (largely Roman and Iron Age), costumes, and history, this museum in an Elizabethan townhouse charts the development of the East Dorset area. You can see how residents might have lived in the house through rooms furnished in the styles of several periods, including a 17th-century hall, reconstructions of local businesses that occupied the building, and a working Victorian kitchen. A tearoom overlooks a walled garden, where you'll find displays of agricultural and horticultural tools.

Although there has been a church here since the 8th century, the current building, with its crenellated and pinnacled twin towers, was built between 1120 and 1180. The nave reflects these Norman origins in its zigzag molding interspersed with carved heads. Several Gothic components were added later, as were fine Victorian geometric tiles and stained-glass windows. Don't miss the late-17th-century chained library (where books are chained to shelves), one of the first public libraries in Britain and still the country's second-largest chained library. Its collection includes a 14th-century manuscript and a 1522 book with a title page designed by Hans Holbein. Also look out for the pre-Copernican (it has a blue ball earth with the sun going around it) astronomical clock, which dates to before the 15th century. It's on the inside wall of the west tower.