Chastleton House is one of the Cotswolds' finest Jacobean houses, built in the early 17th century and preserved with much of its old furniture, textiles, and family atmosphere intact. The National Trust has deliberately conserved rather than polished it, which is part of the appeal.
The gardens are laid out in Elizabethan and Jacobean style, with topiary, lawns, and the croquet lawn where the rules of the modern game were codified in 1865. It is an excellent slow visit from Stow-on-the-Wold.