24-Hour Room Service: The Samling Cumbria, England

The wind was whipping the car, the rain streaking across the windscreen, as we turned off the lakeside road and inched up the narrow drive towards The Samling. The white gabled manor house, hunkered into the hillside, looked as bedraggled as the sheep huddled close to the fields' dry-stone walls.

Somehow, that early-evening soak in the wooden hot tub, the lights along Lake Windermere twinkling far below, no longer seemed quite so appealing. Which was just as well. The gales had caused one power cut already and the hot-tub pump was now broken, as the lovely man with the huge umbrella who ran out to greet us explained. But if the hot tub was no longer an option, tea and home-made shortbread in front of a crackling log fire was. To mellow Andy Williams-style crooning.

At the Samling, there is no formal reception, just a desk in the hall, adding to the feeling that you are staying with - rather swanky - friends. We sank into the velvet sofa in the drawing room, the old chest in front of the fire suitably battered, the rugs nicely threadbare and the oil paintings and watercolours of Lakeland scenes giving a suitable sense of location. Let the wind blow.

Tea became aperitifs, amuse bouche - a cup of delicious turnip, honey and chestnut soup - merged into dinner. Breakfast, however, was served in bed - a house speciality.

LOCATION

The Samling, Ambleside Road, Windermere, Cumbria (015394 31933; www.thesamling.com) is set in a 67-acre estate in the hills above Lake Windermere.

Time to international airport: an hour-and-a-half's drive to Glasgow.

COMFORTABLE?

There are 11 individually designed rooms, all named after the local dialect for counting sheep - yan, tyan, tethera, etc; five are in the main house, the rest in stone cottages scattered over the grounds. We were in Manmire, a mezzanine suite with its own leaf-strewn patio. Inside, it was very Ralph Lauren-meets-New England log cabin; masculine - think blue and beige checks - yet homely. The walls were a mix of rough whitewashed plaster, exposed slate walls and wood panelling, with six paintings of old schooners in a row. Two oars were hung on the wall up the stairs that lead to the bed under the eaves; another, from the Windermere Rowing Club 1937, was suspended from the balcony. The soft music that was playing was on a CD called Bath Heaven - and it was. The spacious bathroom, with its slate floor and wooden walls came with an extra-deep bath and candles surrounded by pebbles.

Freebies: a wooden tray piled with apples and oranges; Aromatherapy Associates toiletries: Balance shampoo, conditioner, body lotion and Revive shower gel.

Keeping in touch: direct-dial telephone, television and fax.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Doubles from £195, Monday to Thursday, including a Cumbrian breakfast in bed, a hot drink and a newspaper; at the weekend, bed and breakfast from £215.

I'm not paying that: The Drunken Duck Inn, Barngates, Ambleside, Cumbria (015394 36347; www.drunkenduckinn.co.uk) has doubles from £95, Monday to Thursday; and from £120 at the weekend, including breakfast, afternoon tea and a newspaper.