Far from the hurrying world, this former coaching Iinn stands amid Wordsworth’s northern Lakes.

‘They just keep making it better every year,’ writes a trusted correspondent, of this luxurious country house hotel in Lakeland countryside.

‘It’s difficult to pinpoint what makes this hotel so special.’ Atop a winding driveway, this Gothic pile is ‘light, airy, full of boutiquey charm – and, naturally, has delightful views across Grasmere’.

On a wonderfully scenic perch above Windermere, Tracey Robinson and Joanna Harbottle’s 19th-century stone-and-slate country house is a ‘very welcoming’ retreat.