Limewood - New Forest

Having been impressed with The Pig's effortless charm, I couldn't wait to patron it's sister hotel - especially seeing as it shares it's name with one of my favourite foods - limes. The country house in question is Limewood, a five star, Relais & Chateaux certified hotel with a 3 AA rosette award winning restaurant. It's the swankier, more elegant sibling of The Pig.

There's a long drive up to Limewood, flanked either side with young trees that will one day probably be terribly imposing. The main house is a flawless cream coloured regency mansion, which is easily the most beautiful hotel in Hampshire.

Limewood, much like The Pig has extensive, beautiful grounds which guests are welcome to wander at their leisure. We had a table booked for Afternoon Tea at four o clock and turned up at three so as to be able to explore the hotel a bit. Dotted around the vast lawns are various things to catch your eye; there are several ponds, a smoke house, lots of places to sit such as some carved tree branch benches and wicker furniture, tremendous pieces of sculpture including several bronzes, gorgeous out buildings that either have a New England or Italian vibe to them and lovely walkways including one out of the hotel grounds signposted as a "Forest Ramble" that leads straight into the heart of the forest. 

One of the New England styled outbuildings

The hotel's Pavillons, with WS sporting his new blazer!

The first path on the "forest ramble"

After we'd explored what Limewood had to offer outside, it was time for a well earned drink in Max's Bar. Cocktail for me, glass of wine for WS!

I loved these chairs, that classic combination of Navy and White always looks fantastic, and here the white piping against the navy velvet was a winner.

After half an hour or so we moved into the Courtyard. It's like stopping off at a rich Italian friend's solarium to wile away an afternoon. The room is full of beautiful light and all the decor stylish. We ordered two afternoon teas with pots of verbena and Assam tea.

The tea came after a few minutes, served on a three tiered tray and followed the standard afternoon tea formula; finger sandwiches, scones with cream and jam and dainty tea cakes to finish. We poured tea into our cups, and set to work on the sandwiches. Flavours were smoked salmon, coronation chicken, egg mayonnaise and cucumber. All of them were good, made with thinly sliced bread and not at all heavy. The smoked salmon apparently is produced on site at the smoke house, and WS almost ordered a second plate they were so good. The egg mayonnaise sandwich - something I usually find dull - was superb, my friend DE (a fiend for egg mayo sandwiches) would have loved it!

Then came the scones. Soft and fluffy on the inside and crumbly on the outside. Delicious! We took some home to scoff later.

The cakes we finished with we're lovely, if a little short of London standards (but then we aren't in London!) WS questioned the waitress on where they were sourced from, and was impressed to hear everything is made by hand, on site by their own patisserie chef. An impressive and unusual feature outside of the capital.

We ended up spending about three hours at Limewood, so chilled out it was hard to leave. When we eventually did drag ourselves back to the car, what confronted us was an idyllic view of countryside bliss, reminding us how lucky we are to have the New Forest right on our doorstep, surely one of the nicest spots in England.

Hampshire should be very proud to play host to such a sophisticated place, this is the future of hotels of its kind - it's a modern classic, free of all the feelings of chintz and stuffiness that go with the "country house hotel" territory. It's right up there with its already well established rival Babington House and putting nearby luxury hotels to shame. I am desperate to go back.
Hamilton

Click here for Limewood's website

Afternoon tea - £23 pp
Max's Voodoo Hoodoo cocktail - £13
Glass of Riesling white wine - £8
Service is charged at 12.5%