For more than 50 years, the Prideaux-Brune family have welcomed guests to their ancestral Jacobean manor house in an English country garden with the Divelish stream skipping through. It hasn't lost any of its charm; readers this year wrote that they loved its 'relaxed but non-pretentious feel' and its 'beautiful, immaculately kept grounds'. The country house has the feel of a much-loved home. Interiors have been upgraded, but they retain their traditional feel, with antiques and blazing fires, and a grand piano in a gallery hung with ancestral portraits. As well as main-house bedrooms, some with window seats where you can look out over the garden, there are ten 'excellent size, warm, well furnished' rooms in a restored stone barn surrounding a topiary courtyard. Four are dog friendly; the Prideaux-Brunes' black Labradors make canine visitors feel at home. Richard, who is 'very much in attendance', curates the 'good, well priced' wine list, while head chef Louis Haskell, cooks dishes such as roasted cod with butter beans and chorizo. In the morning, 'the cooked breakfast was outstanding, especially the bacon and scrambled eggs'. Relax in a deckchair on the lawn, or bring your gun and join a shooting party. (Barbara and Ian Dewey)