There was no wind. It was all still, all quiet apart from the bleating of the sheep. The surrounding villages were to the north, behind the house, so that there was nothing but countryside in view.

A robin looked down and followed them as they moved.

A blackbird scuttled under bushes.

‘The house was pretty much cleared out but the curtains and rugs were left . . . not much use, I don’t imagine. I never think you get a proper idea of an interior when it’s empty – have to use the old imagination a bit.’

But even empty, with bare floors, even with a smell of dry plaster and dust, and ancient faded curtains and rolled-up rugs, cleaned-out grates, spaces in the walls with the outline of picture frames, even then . . .

He walked through the garden-facing rooms, which led off a corridor but also in and out of one another, then across to the darker, back rooms, study, dining room, huge kitchen, pantry, boot room, then up the staircase with its wide banister, to the same arrangement, large bedrooms at the front, a couple of smaller ones, plus bathroom, at the back.

A short, narrower staircase led up to a bare attic. Simon bent his head and looked out over the countryside again. A buzzard was soaring on the air, looking for prey. In the distance, because the weather had cleared slightly, he could now see the train line that ran into Bevham, and the Hill, not much more than a bump in the ground from here.

They went back into the kitchen.

‘Needs the lot ripping out really, though you might be able to restore the old range.’

‘What’s the heating?’

‘Ha – coal – but you’d convert to oil easily. Rewiring would be essential, of course – not up to safety standards by seventy or eighty years I’d guess.’ He tapped the walls. ‘But the great thing is, this is a solid house, the walls are thick, the plasterwork is sound, there’s no rot or damp, the roof was actually done just before the old man died. Obviously, you’d get a survey but this is a house built to last and it has and it will.’

‘How old?’

‘Not as old as you might expect – around 1800. There was an ancient farmhouse here going way back and probably some sort of dwelling before that. It’s all in the deeds. There are some collapsing outbuildings – more were demolished fifty years or so ago, but what are left are way older than the house. You interested in all that sort of thing?’

They wandered back to the front door. Jonathan went to his car and got out a brochure. ‘Hot off the press, they only came in as I was leaving.’

‘How long has it been advertised?’