Eat inside or dine alfresco under a striped parasol, at this exceptional gastropub with super-stylish rooms, some for a family, some dog friendly with access to the garden.

Overlooking the reed beds and salt marsh of Pagham Harbour Nature Reserve, in an 'atmospheric location with great birdwatching from the doorstep', this excellent restaurant with rooms serves 'great food with especially imaginative vegetarian dishes'.

This quintessential English country house with spa, pools, kids' club, elegant bedrooms and fun tree houses, hits all the right luxurious notes for a romantic or family stay.

Do you remember an inn, Miranda? Hilaire Belloc certainly remembered this Georgian coaching inn, from which he described setting out in The Four Men.

East Coast America meets South Coast England at this single-storey, coastal-chic hotel with interesting room choices, good, locally sourced food, and uncrowded sandy beach just over the spectacular dunes.

If you're outward bound for France, this farmhouse B&B, just ten minutes from the port of Dover and Eurotunnel, is perfect for a stop-off – but you might not want to leave. 'This didn't feel like a hotel, it felt like a home,' writes one contented reader.

A 16th-century village inn has been reinvented as a fun, bohemian hangout, with rustic-chic bedrooms, upcycled furniture, modern artworks, good pub grub and an irrepressible sense of fun.

A beacon of hospitality on a remote cliff-top between the English Channel and the rolling downs, this decommissioned 19th-century lighthouse found new purpose in 2010 as a unique B&B. It offers superb 360-degree views from the lantern room, taking in the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs and the South Downs. test

You can paddleboard on the river, stroll to see the deer in Richmond Park, and feel a world away from central London at this smart, multifaceted Thames-side hotel.

For 40 years, Raymond Blanc has held two Michelin stars at this beautiful country-house hotel 'and it's not surprising – every mouthful of every meal is a triumph', say Guide insiders.

At the heart of the South Downs National Park, this village pub with rooms is the rural sister of the seaside Crab & Lobster, Sidlesham (see entry). It is country but no bumpkin.

A New Forest bolt-hole, this country house hotel has an easy glamour, romantic and family-friendly rooms, heart-warming Italian food and top-notch spa.

Amid 1,000 acres of historically important gardens, pleasure grounds and woodland, this romantic Elizabethan manor house, built by an ironmaster for his bride, forms an impressive backdrop for Michelin-starred cuisine.

Anne Boleyn's childhood home, reimagined by William Waldorf Astor as a fairytale moated castle, the seat of a Tudor courtier, stands in landscaped grounds with an Edwardian 'Tudor' village, home to this exceptional B&B.

With the Goodwood Estate down the road and the South Downs on the doorstep, this rural, dog-friendly former coaching inn is popular with Barbour-wearing country-sports enthusiasts and hikers.

Amid a wide sweep of Berkshire countryside, this thatched inn is now a gastropub with an interesting mix of bedrooms and innovative cooking.

'A really nice place to stay, in a lovely quiet village setting,' this beautifully renovated 17th-century thatched inn lives anew as a local pub with rooms. Manager Claire Lenkowiec and chef Valerio Grimaldi-Plant run the show for the owners and, by George, they get it right!

A Regency mansion in parkland, once home to Percy Shelley's mother, has been reimagined as a contemporary country house hotel infused with a blithe spirit.

'Despite a wild and rural backdrop' of 'a tall sandstone ridge, surrounded by mature trees', this pub-with-rooms is just a stroll from the town centre.

A former hunting lodge on the Duke of Wellington's estate, the 'Welly' is a delightful, dog-friendly gastropub with bedrooms that mix rustic chic and modern comforts, impressive cooking of local ingredients, and an in-house deli.

Offering 'the perfect foodie escape', this thatched gastropub is 'ideally located' just ten minutes from Henley-on-Thames on the Phillimore estate.

A short hop from Canterbury, a Grade I-listed Jacobean mansion and former music venue, which once hosted rock legends such as The Kinks, was the sixth addition to Robin Hutson's Pig collection.

With smugglers' tunnels beneath, this 'beautiful, gabled 17th-century manor', five minutes from Ashford International, stands in 'a secret garden oasis with a rose and herb garden'.

In 2013, Carole Bamford acquired the wisteria-draped, Cotswold stone, 18th-century Tollgate Inn and took it back to the bones, before complete refurbishment,

Jeremy Mogford's conversion of the old Barclays Bank gets credit from a Guide insider for its 'brilliant location, right in the city centre'.

Pigs have foraged in the New Forest since the Norman Conquest, but a different breed arrived in 2011, when Robin Hutson took on a Georgian hunting lodge and reinvented the English country house hotel.

Swathed with creepers and bedecked with flowers, this wildly atmospheric B&B stands on a cobbled street in a medieval citadel with views over Romney Marsh.

It is more than thirty years since Sarah Burgoyne first welcomed guests to her Georgian manor house, 'in enchanting gardens and grounds', where 'deer roam at dawn and birdsong is guaranteed'.

Redolent of its sometimes racy past, this veritable palazzo, designed by Sir Charles Barry in 1850 for the Duke of Sutherland, sits in National Trust pleasure grounds above the Thames.