Chocolate box

My sister recently visited Pemberley, Mr Darcy's mansion in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride & Prejudice (more commonly known as Lyme Park in the Peak District), and so, not to be outdone, this weekend I decided it was high time that I visited the village of Meryton, favourite daytime destination of the Bennet sisters (but more commonly known as the village of Lacock, in Wiltshire).

For some reason, I kind of didn't expect anyone to live there. Almost the whole village is owned by the National Trust in order to keep it just as it is – just as it has been since the 18th century (and earlier) – so having 21st-century people living there seemed a bit inauthentic somehow.
The different centuries seemed to get along quite nicely though really: anticipating the hoards of tourists, people sold courgettes from wheelbarrows outside their 18th-century front doors, alongside boxes of well-read Mills & Boons (a bit of a world away from P&P).
Unfortunately, lovely as it was, it was no Pemberley (which I guess is what Elizabeth Bennet thought too – ha!) so I still feel outdone, I'm afraid. I'm already plotting some kind of trip to the Peak District.