The pain of house price falls is not being shared equally in the shires; the grander the house, the smaller the decrease in its value.

This reflects the diminished purchasing power of townies who can no longer afford a weekend bolt hole or a move to the country, as they have been turned down for a mortgage, have failed to sell their London house or have been forced to cut back on discretionary spending as fuel and food bills become more expensive. Inflation figures out this week showed that food prices were up 9.5 per cent over the past year.

The awfully rich, however, are continuing to acquire one-of-a-kind stuff such as manor houses and jewellery. There is still competitive bidding for what Rupert Sweeting, the head of Knight Frank's country department, calls “best in class” country houses, and Bond Street jewellers such as Boodles have seen little sign of economising induced by the credit crunch among their clientele.

Country cottages were down in value by 5.7per cent in the second quarter of the year, according to the latest index of prime country property produced by Knight Frank. The firm defines a cottage as a detached dwelling with an acre of land and three or four bedrooms, which means that its data does not record the performance of all small-ish, rural properties. Manor houses, meanwhile, proved more resilient: their prices were just 1.9 per cent lower. In the Knight Frank classification, a manor house stands on its own in several acres, with paddocks and barns, all reached via a private drive.

Overall, the prime country house market fell by 3.9 per cent during the period: this is the largest decrease since Knight Frank started collecting data in 1995. Particularly hard-hit are overpriced properties in less attractive locations or close to a main road. The picture is a little brighter in Scotland and the North of England, however, with prices rising in the Lothians and the West Coast of Scotland.

Sweeting points out that farmland values continue to grow: a 10 per cent rise in the second quarter brought the annual increase to 38 per cent. The demand for farmland has been spurred by higher food prices.

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