‘In a beautiful setting, with valley and fell views all around’, this country house, built for the daughter of a Liverpool ship owner, retains the leisured ambiance of its Edwardian past. Bedrooms are traditionally styled, although with modern comforts. The dual-aspect original master bedroom looks across the valley towards Derwentwater and Catbells. Its bathroom has a bath and separate monsoon shower. All rooms have room service, smart Gilchrist and Soames toiletries. Throughout, the hotel is spruce, ‘smart, clean and in good repair’. Manager Leigh O’Donoghue presides over ‘accommodating’ staff. You can take afternoon tea under a parasol on the terrace – a sight of red squirrels, the icing on the cake. A reader admired chef Noel Breaks’s cooking. ‘The food is a major delight – we ended up eating in every night.’ He works with locally grown, reared and foraged produce to create such dishes as rack of Yew Tree Farm hogget, turnips, fondant potato, roasted shallot; confit cabbage, Jersey Royals, broccoli and blue cheese purée, mustard-seed vinaigrette. A ‘very good breakfast’ includes home-made bread and free-range eggs. Pretty Grange village is a stroll away.