‘Tim and Stefa Hart’s country house hotel is consistently outstanding, with service I have yet to see bettered: courteous, attentive, unobtrusive. And Aaron Patterson’s Michelin-starred cooking never fails.’ Standing amid formal gardens, this ‘classy, delightful hotel’ inspires devotion among its guests. ‘It does not disappoint,’ a regular Guide reader sums up in 2017. Modern luxury mixes with period features in the 19th-century hunting lodge. Well-equipped bedrooms have thoughtful touches (fresh flowers, pre-stamped postcards, biscuits by the bedside) that add to the general feeling of being ‘wonderfully spoilt’. ‘Our room overlooked lovely Rutland Water under lowering skies on a winter Sunday.’ Stroll round the ‘beautiful gardens’ or, if the weather turns, find a spot on one of the ‘inviting sofas’ in the ‘ever-comfortable lounges’ (‘the lighting’s a little low for reading, though’). Dinner is ‘superb’; breakfast, with ‘good, strong coffee and fresh hot cross buns’, is ‘exemplary’. ‘Long may the current owners and chef remain.’ Sister establishment Hart’s Hotel is in Nottingham (see entry). (Robert Gower, Anthony Bradbury, Robert Sandham). Hambleton Hall is also a member of Pride of Britain hotels.