Spent a delightful morning in the Northamptonshire village of Evenley near Buckingham in the steaming sunshine. It has one of those simple, but enormous village greens, with pub and post office, that seem too good to be true. I was there taking a look at the Old Manor House, a handsome smaller manor house, probably of the mid 17th century, but in that unchanging masonry tradition that lasts from the late 16th century to the late 17th. It sits tucked away in a corner off the village green at the beginning of Church lane. It is thought to have been the home of the Lisle family and in the pretty victorian church I was pleased to find the monument of the last of the Lisles whose first name was Fermor, which may suggest a connection to the Fermors of Easton Neston. The house has a nice simple plan and handsomely detailed windows with that dignity that only comes from a hand-crafted building. I feel I have tasted a rare slice of the best of old England; a treat after being trapped by the traffic for Silverstone.