Mottisfont Abbey, one of the most aesthetically satisfying of National Trust houses, has a symmetrical facade perfectly combining Tudor red-brick staircases with Georgian grey limestone bays. The contrasting interiors have survivals of the medieval Augustinian priory and a room transformed by trompe l’oeil Gothic plasterwork by Rex Whistler in 1938–1939.

It was granted to the Lord Chamberlain, William (1470–1540), Lord Sandys, and passed down the family, eventually, through the female line, to Sir Richard Mill (1690–1760), 5th Bt, who largely created its present form. It was sold in 1934 by Peter Barker-Mill (1908–1994) to Gilbert Russell (1875–1942), and his wife, Maud Nelke (1891–1982), who gave Mottisfont Abbey without contents, but with 2,080 acres and an endowment, to the National Trust in 1957. The modern art collection of the artist Derek Hill (1916–2000), presented through the Art Fund in 1996, is now housed there.