Hotel Lewtrenchard Manor, Okehampton, Reino Unido (Okehampton, United Kingdom)

Lewtrenchard-Member of Von Essen Hotels a private collection of individual country houses in the UK, Scotland and France-Runner-up Room for Romance Hotel of the Year award 2005. A Jacobean Manor tucked away in its own secret valley. Hidden away in a wooded hollow just beneath the wild tors of Dartmoor, Lewtrenchard is a house virtually untouched by time. The original manor was mentioned in the Domesday Book, but todays impressive Jacobean dwelling, set in its own shrub filled gardens and surrounded by peaceful parkland, dates from the early 1600 s. Over the years it was home to a series of colourful characters; James Gould, one the earliest adventurers to trade on the Chinese mainland, Edward Gould the compulsive gambler and suspected murderer, and the Reverend Sabine Baring Gould, celebrated hymn writer and novelist who composed Onward Christian Soldiers at the desk that still stands in the front hall. This house, steeped in history, is large enough to be imposing, yet not so grand as to be unwelcoming. Stepping over the ancient slate floor in the impressive hallway one immediately feels very much at home.