The Ram Inn Hotel

The Ram Inn, The Street, Firle, Nr. Lewes, East Sussex

This one-time coaching inn at Firle has long had a following in literary circles, once a regular haunt of Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Set. Stay in the namesake Bloomsbury Room, with oak panels and a roll-top bath in the window looking over the South Downs. An evening begins with a Burning Sky ale in the garden followed by dinner in the Court Room, which retains its grandeur from when it was used by travelling magistrates. The food is a celebration of Sussex. The chef buys a whole lamb from a local farmer and butchers it appropriately. He chargrills it with buttered greens, new potatoes and mint, all grown in the housekeeper’s garden. It’s a true taste of British summer. IL. Doubles from £90, raminn.co.uk