'I find it difficult to make any original comments,’ writes a Guide regular after this year’s visit to Tim and Stefa Hart’s much-loved hotel (Relais & Châteaux) with celebrated grounds reaching down to Rutland Water. ‘All the superlatives have been used by other guests.'

‘My four-year-old loves Chewton as much as I do, it’s always a struggle to leave.’ ‘We stayed to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, and it exceeded expectations.’

A golden stone Carolean manor house-turned-rectory in an ‘idyllic setting’ is run as a 'welcoming, comfortable and relaxing' hotel, under highly experienced manager Michael Obray.

‘Everything about Judges smacked of class and excellence.’ Readers this year loved this smart hotel on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors.

‘Whenever a special date crops up, we make a beeline for Gravetye and have never been disappointed.’

Beyond ‘splendid wrought iron gates’, a ‘beautifully wooded half-mile drive’ leads to Paul and Poppy Szkiler’s towered and turreted Victorian pile, with a fountain ‘dominating the forecourt'.

At the end of a long drive past rustic cabins, a helipad and a forest-fringed meadow, this 21st-century rebuild of a Georgian lodge is a ‘highly professional, near faultless’ modern country house hotel.