The hotel: “You don’t like spas, I hope? Who wants to come to a place like this and spend their time in the basement?” So says Tim Hart, the puckish proprietor of Hambleton Hall, a country-house hotel marooned on a peninsula in Rutland Water. Twenty-eight years after he traded banking for bed-letting, Hart is still keen as mustard – he pens his own idiosyncratic guidebook on local attractions for guests, and wafts through the stuccoed corridors with squiffy bow tie and mad-professor hair, adding greatly to the gaiety.

“We don’t worry about fripperies here,” he says. “We concentrate on doing the important things well. Good food, good service.”

Quite so. Hart’s idea of uncomplicated hospitality is expertly realised, with morning-suited staff, antique-dressed drawing rooms, fancy cuisine, perhaps a snifter in the garden at sunset. If you need diversions, Hambleton has a croquet lawn and a wisteria-soaked pool, with spiffing views of the lake.

One thing that’s not understated is the architecture: this is one of those over-the-top Victorian hunting boxes, with novelty brickwork and far more gables than it knows what to do with.

The rooms: all 15 bedrooms are under the eaves of the main house. Most have pleasantly sloping ceilings, and all but a couple overlook the lake. There is a lovely light touch about the countrified interiors, created by Tim’s wife, Stefa. Our room, Lake, was grey-green and white, with fresh lilies, fat drapes and wall-to-wall sunshine. No tea trays or trouser presses here, but we did get a box of homemade shortbread, appropriately rustic books and the comfiest pillows I’ve fondled for ages.

The food: The Michelin-starred head chef, Aaron Patterson, is Hambleton home-grown – just like the salads and strawberries from his kitchen garden – and before dinner he drags me around the kitchen. Patterson’s cooking is passionate stuff: black pudding with veal sweetbreads, pineapple jelly with space dust, petits fours spiked with pepper, olive and star anise. The six-course tasting menu succeeds in being good value at £65 a head.

Beyond the grounds: “ Fay ce que voudras”, says the motto on Hambleton’s lintel – “Do what you will.” And you’ve plenty of options here, though they no longer include foxhunting, first developed (in its modern form) up the road in the village of Exton. That still leaves assorted lakeside stimulation, including cycling, watersports and bird-watching (ospreys nest at the Egleton nature reserve). Or hook a half-day trout-fishing permit for £13.

There are cute villages around – don’t miss Exton, Lyddington and Barrowden – and a trio of well-mannered market towns make for a perfect triangular tour: Oakham, for its square and castle; Uppingham, for its antiques; Stamford, for its architecture and teashops. Little England never felt littler.

— Hambleton Hall (01572 756991, www.hambletonhall.com); doubles from £200, B&B

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