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WILTON , five miles west of Salisbury, is renowned for its carpet industry and the splendid Wilton House (mid-April to Oct daily 10.30am-5.30pm; last entry 1hr before closing; GBP7.25; grounds only GBP3.75; ), of which Daniel Defoe wrote: "One cannot be said to have seen any thing that a man of curiosity would think worth seeing in this county, and not have been at Wilton House." The Tudor house, built for the First Earl of Pembroke on the site of a dissolved Benedictine abbey, was ruined by fire in 1647 and rebuilt by Inigo Jones, whose classic hallmarks can be seen in the sumptuous Single Cube and Double Cube rooms, so called because of their precise dimensions. Sir Philip Sidney, illustrious Elizabethan courtier and poet, wrote part of his magnum opus Arcadia here - the dado round the Single Cube Room illustrates scenes from the book - and the Double Cube room was the setting for the ballroom scene in Ang Lee's film, Sense and Sensibility . The easel paintings are what makes Wilton really special, however - the collection includes paintings by Van Dyck, Rembrandt, two of the Brueghel family, Poussin, Andrea del Sarto and Tintoretto. In the grounds, the famous Palladian Bridge has been joined by ancillary attractions including an adventure playground, garden centre and an audiovisual show on the colourful earls of Pembroke, all designed to subsidize a massive programme of structural renovation.
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