The house was built in the Old Queen's time for an Elizabethan pirate who was rewarded with a knighthood for the plunder he brought home. It survived many eras and many reigns - it saw the passing of Cromwell and the Civil War; it was rescued by an illiterate woman farmer; became rich with an Indian Nabob and poor with a twentieth century hotelier. Children, both heirs and bastards, were born there. It had ghosts, legends and a history that grew stranger with every generation. Never be put off by the covers of any book by Norah Lofts. She always told a wonderful story, no matter what time period she had chosen.