Fine food, a pleasing pub and spacious bedrooms are among the benefits at this wisteria-clad Arts and Crafts building with Tudor origins, in a picturesque village by the Beaulieu river on the edge of the New Forest. Moments after trusted readers pulled up at this Tudor-Jacobean style hotel on the edge of the New Forest, a young man came out to greet them and to take their cases – ‘very impressive’. House rooms are designated Snug, Feature and Suite. ‘Cherry room was delightful,' another reader writes. ‘Spacious and very comfortable.' Some overlook the ‘beautifully laid out and maintained gardens’, or the street roamed by ponies, while others have a view of Beaulieu Palace. The more contemporary, dog-friendly Courtyard Retreats in the old chauffeur garages will sleep a family, and have an espresso machine, a decanter of gin, a marble bathroom with bath and drench shower, perhaps a private terrace. In the wood-panelled fine-dining restaurant, home-grown produce features in dishes such as courgette salad with burrata, tempura lemon sole with lemon leaf. ‘The ambience was relaxed with congenial staff seemingly as happy as the diners.’ You can eat more cheaply in the on-site pub, Monty’s Bar. ‘Breakfast offered a wide selection, well prepared and presented.’ (Rob and Shirley Lowe, DP, JS, T and SM)