Minding the Manor

If you closed your eyes and tried to picture a quintessential English country manor, you’d probably come up with something very much like Shaftesbury Estates, in East Dorset near the country’s south coast. The east side of the gargantuan redbrick main house looks onto a stately avenue of beech trees, planted in double rows on either side and extending some three-quarters of a mile toward the horizon. Not far away, you might spot a fisherman wading the shallows of the River Allen, a pristine stretch of spring-fed, clear-flowing chalk stream that looks like a setting from , with kingfishers, otters, and a thriving population of native brown trout fattened on mayflies and minnows. At times, shotguns echo in the distance, as tweed-clad guests take aim at partridge or pheasant on a driven shoot.