No. 7, Silverless Street, Marlborough, Wiltshire. £750K

Now to whizz down to the expensive south, and visit another rare, early property, decorated and furnished with interesting taste and style.

This house is listed Grade II, it dates back to about 1600. It certainly has an ancient charm about it.  Still a house can be a 'Ship of Theseus', or 'Trigger's broom' to some extent and I am not an expert in detecting a good renovation from original work, I suppose its fenestration would have been different originally. The estate agents' brochure gives excellent comprehensive details of the listing and the history of both the house and the town.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70936546.html

The first reception room has been done as a print room, which has nothing much to do with the original period of the house, but of course the older a house is, the more periods of interior fashion it has lived through, one is entitled to choose the ones that suit it best.  I love the rose/terracotta back ground colour, though I'm not sure if it goes with the turqoise/duck egg which is rather strident.  I think I would paint over the duck egg in a greyer form.  The fireplace seems to be a reproduction of a 19th century one, I wonder if there is something earlier waiting to be discovered behind it?

What is the timber of the low boy?  I wish I knew.  It is as contrasting as Coromandel, but with a smudgier, cloudier look, with not so definite a grain, and surely Coromandel wasn't used in the period of the late 17th/early 18th century when lowboys were in fashion?  There is an exotic timber known as Pheasant wood, which looks a little like it.. Or could it be simulated in paint or graining technique as some imagined. exotic timber?  Anyway, since it is so lovely and unusual, the owner or agent has sensibly made use of it twice in the brochure, once in the print room, once in the bathroom, unless it is one of a pair.

The next reception room has subtly rag rolled walls, to give an old mottled. 'Glory be to God for dappled things' effect. I don't think I would dare to have such a blazing fire in that small grate, with the beam so exposed.  I would only burn smokeless fuel, I think. I would not have chosen a walnut or amboyna pier cabinet with ormolu mounts and a gilt wood Louis type chair for this room, but they look very nice, and rather as the print room does, give the impression the owner, like the mother in Sense and Sensibility, has moved from a much larger stately home and in this case, has been allowed to take some of her things with her, and her taste.  Nobody has sent along a square piano for her daughters though.

I love the (built in? - I hope so) cupboard with niche at the other end of the room, albeit pine and the two high back turned chairs, with Art Deco needlework upholstery. And I want, like anything, the deep blue/teal velvet sofa.

The dining room is well done, the Georgian dresser and the long case clock, the stone colour of the paint on the period paneling, the regency chairs with old leather seats, the wide grey floorboards, the brass coal bucket with lions head handles, by the little hob grate. and the period portraits. (I once bought an old mirror from a man in Suffolk who had painted every panel at a certain height in his late 17th century drawing room with a portrait of one of the early Kings of England.  All were done in accurate, period style, copied from original works.  It looked excellent and made me very jealous.) I think I would have a Flemish brass type chandelier in this room, rather than a crystal one.

The main bathroom is interesting.  I love the built in, rectangular, loo.  As I said before I would tone down the turqoise colour of the panels, with a greyer or earthier shade.   The wall paper is lovely. there is a further much more boring kind of bathroom, too.

Everything about the kitchen is absolutely right, I hope nobody would be silly enough to install anything slick and modern in its place.  The only thing that occurs to me is that the Aga would make the room, and probably the whole house, very hot in the summer months and would have to be switched off.  Nothing wrong with living on salad from May to September though.

The tiny old staircase means one wouldn't be able to get much sizeable furniture on to the top floors, but as I have said elsewhere, below, one can usually fit in lowboys, joint stools, bible boxes, country chairs, small side tables and the smaller coffers and chests, and of course toilet mirrors, to turn such items into dressing tables. If beds have to be constructed, I think they should be painted in subtle period colours, and imaginative use made of interesting fabrics, woven cloth and patchwork.

The little garden is interestingly planted,for once.  It is amazing how few interesting gardens one comes across, so many old properties are just done up to sell with bland, neatness the only consideration in the matter of the garden.