Cranborne Chase
A few miles north of Michaelmas House Stables is Cranborne Chase, an area of rolling chalk upland country that is the sixth largest of the 41 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK.
It's a surprising find, an area of beautiful countryside known to very few people, dotted with footpaths over gentle hills and through small coppices. Cranborne itself boasts a delightful Manor House--it's one of many villages that are backwaters of an older rural past, with venerable pubs, ancient churches, grand houses, and farm-based suppliers of local produce. High in North Dorset sits Gold Hill (beloved of those '70s Hovis ads) in Shaftsbury and, a little beyond it, the Georgian treasures of Stourhead. Featuring the superb landscape of Henry Hoare, the grounds at Stourhead are rightly regarded as amongst the finest in the world. The property is just one of several National Trust treaturs in this delightful region.
Here's the Cranborne Chase link: http://www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk/
Here's the Stourhead link: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-stourhead