‘We have become addicted to this place,’ write trusted readers, following a return visit to this beautiful Elizabethan manor house (Relais & Châteaux).

Perennial visitors reported ‘a warm welcome’ from Clive James and David Stott at their restaurant-with-rooms – ‘a cherished institution to many Glyndebourne regulars’ – at the foot of the South Downs.

‘At night, surrounded by floodlit cedars and oaks, it felt like a movie set,’ writes one reader this year, after visiting the luxury New Forest retreat.

The ‘beautiful gardens’, ‘wonderful atmosphere’ and ‘pleasant rooms’ were highlighted by guests this year, who praised this ‘delightful’ B&B.

A long drive through landscaped gardens reveals this ‘simply wonderful’ Edwardian B&B where visitors are rewarded by a sweet welcome from ‘charming host’ Amanda Lane.

Famous politicians and luminaries have pow-wowed and partied in this country pile, once the rural retreat of press baron Lord Beaverbrook.

Far-reaching views of ‘peaceful’ countryside roll away from this luxurious, ‘very grand’ Victorian mansion; Gertrude Jekyll designed the ‘spectacular’ surrounding gardens.