‘One for traditionalists,’ write trusted Guide readers, of this child-friendly, dog-friendly Jacobean ancestral home in Thomas Hardy country, run by owners Richard and Brian Prideaux-Brune, with Richard’s wife, Alison. The welcome is famously warm. Interiors are filled with paintings and antiques. The portrait gallery hosts a grand piano and probably the largest, lumpiest sofa you will ever sit upon. The lovely gardens and house are ‘immaculate’, and – traditionalists take note – four main-house bedrooms have recently been updated with contemporary Farrow & Ball tones, new carpet, and fresh bathroom with a walk-in shower. ‘No avocado bath,’ we are told. Our readers stayed in the converted stone barn where rooms still offer a more dated style. Before dinner, guests drink aperitifs by the log fire as Richard Prideaux-Brune makes lively conversation. In the kitchen, brother Brian, with Louis Haskell, cooks a daily-changing menu of such ‘good, honest fare’ as partridge breast, smoked bacon, apple bubble-and-squeak. Devotees come for the hospitality, the craik, the cooking, the sense of ‘true escape’, the shooting if that’s their bag, the authentic country house experience. (Chris and Erika Savory)