PRICE:
Frommer's Exceptional

Standing on 27 hectares (67 acres) opening onto panoramic views of Lake Windermere, this hotel was fashioned from a late-18th-century stone-built manse with three gables set off with scalloped fretwork. Wordsworth used to come here to pay his rent on Dove Cottage in neighboring Grasmere. Samling bills itself as an "un-country house" hotel, free of "snooty nostalgic stuff." The tranquil hotel is becoming a secret address for the rich and famous such as soccer star David Beckham. Rooms are more spacious in a converted stable block; you'll think you're at a ski lodge. In the main building bedrooms have more of a traditional British aura. Even if not a guest, consider an elegant £55 ($110) set-price gourmet dinner here.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's England 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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