Readers ‘had a really lovely, relaxing stay’ at Lila Arora’s apricot-washed Georgian mansion, approached by an avenue of lime trees amid sheep-grazed pastures. Ms Arora is the granddaughter of the late chatelaine, Imogen Skirving, whose personality still infuses the place. The atmosphere is that of an elegant but lived-in private home, filled with paintings, antique clocks, ornaments, crammed bookcases. Your bedroom might have a four-poster, a rocking chair, Staffordshire china dogs on the mantelpiece. Cartland is the very feminine room Dame Barbara favoured. Three rooms are in a wing reached via the church garden at the rear. At dinner, Gary Booth’s fixed-price menus include such dishes as fillet of Blackberry Farm beef, caramelised hispi cabbage, tempura oyster. Its ‘pleasant, cheerful young staff’ are perhaps not yet up to speed, ‘so service was a bit dilatory’. After confusion over soufflé and soup, other Guide regulars described it as ‘eccentric but willing’. A minor grumble, however. In sum: ‘Great room. Magical grounds, as well as lots of history.’ (Peter and Anne Davies, NP, PJ, A and CR)