The majesty of High House hits you the second you walk in the front door. A regal flight of steps, clad in red carpet, ascends under an arched vault that leads to a Norfolk version of the picture gallery at Buckingham Palace. “It's formed of five perfect cubes of 18ft,” says Henry Birkbeck, whose family have owned these broad acres since 1897.

You would feel like a prince standing at the top of the steps greeting your guests, framed by a pair of tall Ionic columns based on the Temple at Delos. The property, in West Acre, near Swaffham, Norfolk, is for sale for £9.5 million with more than 1,000 acres. The whole house is a hymn to English country life and sporting pursuits. The grand staircase is lined with glass boxes of stuffed birds, including the great bustard, which became extinct in Norfolk in the 1830s. At the top you step over a well-worn tiger skin. Ground-floor passages are painted with scenes of highland stags and salmon fishing.

Every proper country house needs to be approached through a large park with a scattering of ancient oaks, limes or chestnuts. Here there are two long carriage drives forming an in-and-out loop. The west drive starts through ornamental woodland bordered by broad grass verges, the east bursts immediately into parkland and takes you past large clumps of mature trees with the classic “browsing” line made by cattle grazing the lower branches.

High House is built of the same pale oatmeal brick used at Holkham Hall on the north Norfolk coast. The centre has immensely tall sash windows, which proclaim the grandeur within. They date from a 1820s remodelling by the accomplished Norfolk architect William John Donthorn.

A drawing in the house shows that he proposed a noble entrance portico of giant Greek Ionic columns. The wings, set well back, are also perfect cubes with baroque surrounds to the main windows. Unusually the whole building is crested not with a cornice or parapet but with brick battlements, which form a kind of coronet around the whole building.

By contrast, Donthorn's stables, with flat-topped towers at the four corners, are as earnest an essay in Greek Revival as could be found in Munich or Berlin. Inside the stables is one of the best small manages (riding schools) in England. The large unusual D-shaped walled garden also thrives in an unexpected way: it is leased to a nursery, which maintains the borders and beds in splendid style, and which you have to yourself when the gates close. A wise buyer should consider maintaining both tenancies.

Equally important choices must be made inside the house. The centre has just two storeys, so if you want one of the lofty Regency bedrooms you will find them opening off the gallery - as do all the main reception rooms, such as the library and drawing room. A dozen more bedrooms are in the three-storey wings.

The ground floor is a splendidly old-fashioned masculine realm with estate office, gun room, study, billiard room, all furnished in a manner that would put Nicholas Soames instantly at ease. You could live here in winter, sipping Madeira and enjoying the cosiness of low ceilings and log fires.The country around is as tranquil as anywhere in England within two hours' train ride of London. There's a mass of work to do on the house itself but paradise is already here, all around you.

Fast facts

What you get: Grade I listed mansion in 1,098 acres of arable and parkland with stable block, walled garden and five cottages. In all, 21,000 sq ft.

Where is it: West Acre, Norfolk. Twelve miles from King's Lynn; trains to London take from 1hr 40min.

Schools: Primary schools at Castle Acre, Gayton and Narborough; Oundle School; Gresham's School, Holt.

Where to eat: Strattons, Swaffham; Morston Hall, Morston.

Price: £9.5 million via Strutt & Parker 020-7629 7282; CKD Kennedy Macpherson 020-7409 1944.

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