The change-resistant village, LYNCHBURG , seventy miles southeast of Nashville, is home to Jack Daniel's Distillery (daily 9am-4.30pm; free).

Founded in 1866, this is the oldest registered distillery in the country (hence the famous "No. 1" appellation). Entertaining seventy-minute tours lead you through every step of the sour-mash whiskey-making process - but you can't actually sample the stuff, as you're in a dry county, though you can buy special edition bottles of the stuff in the giftshop, every day but Sunday.

Lynchburg itself is a pretty hamlet, laid out around a neat town square with a redbrick courthouse and a number of old-fashioned stores. One enjoyable throwback is Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House , which serves enormous Southern dinners (fried chicken, turnip greens, country ham and the like) at group tables in a lovely 1805 home (reservations are essential; tel 615/759-7394).