'A model of a modern country hotel' offering 'really excellent food' and 'comfortable, country-style bedrooms', this Peak District bolthole in a 17th-century manor house with gardens overlooking the River Derwent is surrounded by good walking country and in close proximity to Bakewell. Once owned by Lord and Lady Edward Manners, it was built for the steward of their stately home, Haddon Hall, and is full of tradition, and has plenty of art and antiques, a beamed bar, and four-posters in some of the bedrooms. 'Dinner is the main event', say our inspectors, starting with nibbles in the 'quaint bar, with a sparkling peacock image on the wall tiles'. In the restaurant, with its Mouseman tables, 'dishes are complex, carefully presented, well judged for portion size and very tasty'. In the bar, a lunch menu impressed another reader with its fish ('probably the best I have ever had outside Yorkshire'). After a generous breakfast, with an 'honourable mention for the toasted bacon sandwich', go hiking, visit Haddon Hall and Chatsworth House, or try fly fishing. (Peter Anderson, Tony and Ginny Ayers, and others)