Summer Lodge Country House Hotel

Summer Lodge was built in 1798 as the dower house to the Earls of Ilchester's Melbury estate, on the edge of the Dorset village of Evershot. In 1893 the house gained a new wing: the Drawing Room and Master Suite, generally credited to Thomas Hardy, who trained as an architect before he wrote. The extension is still the easiest part of the house to read, with high ceilings and tall sash windows that fill the room with light.

The hotel has been part of the family-owned Red Carnation collection since 2002. It runs to 25 rooms and suites, a spa with an indoor pool, and a restaurant that holds three AA Rosettes and cooks from Dorset suppliers and its own kitchen gardens. The Bar has a whisky lounge beside it, lined with books and warmed by an open fire.

For a private occasion there are three ways in. The Dorchester Suite, mahogany-panelled and book-lined, takes a dinner of 16. The Drawing Room and the glass-roofed Conservatory suit a ceremony or a reception. Taken whole, the house gives a party every bedroom, the Restaurant, Drawing Room, Bar and gardens, and a marquee on the front lawn raises the count to 200.