Surrounded by manicured lawns, wild meadow flowers and woodland, this Cotswold-stone manor house, a few miles outside Tetbury, has ‘exceptional staff, excellent service, delightful furnishings’. A member of the Cotswold Inns & Hotels group (see also entry for The Lamb, Burford), its Victorian mullion windows and stone fireplaces are enlivened with bold colours and appealing art, while a woodland theme (tree wallpaper, a bowl of pine cones) nods at the nearby National Arboretum. Plush armchairs, in country tweeds, gather before open log fires and create nooks in the book- and curios-filled library and ‘well-furnished’ sitting rooms. Varying in size, country house-style bedrooms are in the main building – those over the bar may not suit light sleepers – while rooms in the garden annexes are more modern. Two (Magnolia, Gamekeeper) have a hot tub and their own garden. In the buzzy bar, dogs are given their own menu (braised venison, liver-and-oat biscuits); fine ales, simple plates and board games occupy their owners. The restaurant’s ‘very good, skilfully prepared seasonal dishes’ include wild mushroom lasagne, truffle, rocket, goat’s cheese. (Mary Coles, MEO)