Trereife

With ancestral portraits gazing down from panelled walls, a Queen Anne facade overlooking a parterre, and extensive wooded grounds, the delightful Le Grice family’s mansion ‘feels more like a stately home than a B&B’. There is a relaxed feel within, with guests encouraged to treat the antique-filled sitting room as their own, and to wander freely on the ‘small estate’. A magnificent staircase leads to four bedrooms, each named after a romantic poet, in honour of forebear Charles Valentine Le Grice, who counted Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Leigh Hunt as friends. Two self-catering apartments, across the courtyard, are named Arkle and Corbière, a nod to owner Tim Le Grice’s sideline in horse breeding. Our reader, having booked a house room, was offered one of these at no extra charge. It was ‘up some steep stairs, with a large kitchen, double bedroom, huge bathroom. The bed was perfection of comfort, the lighting was good.’ A delicious breakfast is served in the elegant dining room, with jam from the medlars in the orchard. ‘My wife ordered the full English on three consecutive mornings, and she’s a notoriously light eater.’ (MB)