Britain's best hospitality often happens above a bar, in rooms with sloping floors, a very good mattress and a landlady who knows exactly how you would like your eggs.
First impression
The first thing you notice is the quiet, and then the smell of woodsmoke and something baking. Nobody asks you to fill in a form, and your bag somehow reaches your room before you do. There is a certain kind of hospitality that takes a huge amount of work to appear so entirely effortless.
You can't get lost on the way to bed, which is a very real benefit.
The room
Rooms are simple, thoughtfully arranged and free of anything you would have to learn how to operate. The bed is excellent, the lights have ordinary switches and the window opens. It is almost distressing how rarely all these things are found in one place, regardless of the room rate.
Worth knowing
Breakfast is included and it is worth waking up for: good bread, local eggs and proper coffee in a pot that has been left at your table. Dinner is a set menu, cooked by the owner on most evenings, served early, and you will want to book it when you book your room.
Rates fall by around a third between November and March, and that is when we would go anyway, for the fires and the empty paths. Dogs are welcome in some of the rooms. Children are welcome throughout. Self-importance, one suspects, might be gently discouraged, though nobody would be so rude as to say it.
