Gravetye Manor Hotel

The Manor was built in Shakespeare's heyday by one Richard Infield for his wife Katherine. In its time, the house has been used as a store for smuggled goods, but it was set firmly on the path of respectability by the Victorian gardener William Robinson, who bought it in 1884, and designed the quintessential English gardens that are still on view. The old-school tone extends to an oak-panelled dining-room, where some skilful, knowledgeable cooking is on display. The style mixes and matches European modes, as when wood-pigeon and seared foie gras are presented on a sheet of open lasagne, and served with shredded cabbage and a creamed celeriac sauce. Presentations might hark back to an earlier era, so that a timbale of shellfish risotto is wrapped in courgette strips to accompany sea bass, its skin scored and browned from the frying. Classy desserts include prune and Armagnac soufflé with matching ice cream.