Ascott is a Jacobean farmhouse remodelled and enlarged in 1876-84 for Leopold de Rothschild by George Devey. Further additions were made by Devey's assistant James Williams. The result is a rambling, asymmetrical building; the exterior of the ground floor is red brick and the floors above are half-timbered. Mary Gladstone described it as ‘a palace-like cottage, the most luxurious and lovely thing I ever saw.’ The interiors feature a Victorian cornice incorporating a series of proverbs in the Common Room. It was redecorated more recently by the Italian designer Renzo Mongiardino.