‘A very comfortable country-house hotel,’ writes a trusted reader, a return visitor to this village pub on the Chatsworth estate, with ‘well-appointed, small but comfortable rooms spread around the village’. They have been styled with panache, blending traditional features with contemporary and witty touches. Some have a modern four-poster, some an in-room roll-top bath. The 18th-century inn has gritstone walls, beams, padded settles, a log burner, low ceilings, flagstone floors. Jazzy striped and cerise tub chairs hint at the influence of the Duchess of Devonshire on the interior design. You can eat in the bar, on the garden terrace, or in the modern brasserie, perhaps a beef and ale pie or falafel burger. ‘The food was good and service excellent. (See also The Cavendish, Baslow, The Devonshire Arms Pilsley and The Devonshire Arms at Bolton Abbey.) (Bill Wood)