Bowood Hotel, Wiltshire

This was chosen as an overnight stop on the way to Cornwall where we will enjoy a week's holiday with some good friends.

It was chosen because it sits on the Marquess of Lansdowne's family estate (one of them) which features, alongside the house and gardens, a seasonal woodland garden that was recommended in the most recent edition of the RHS magazine.

The hotel is very pleasant and has an inviting golf course attached; unused by the author. The room was spacious and comfortable with one of the better examples of a hotel bathroom.

We were asked at what time we would like breakfast and booked in for 9am.

Being the polite sort of Old People we arrived on time and were sat a table with a view across the aforementioned, unused golf course.

Service was à la carte and breakfast came in two courses. He chose the croissant and pastries, followed by the full English, whilst She selected the granola with yoghurt, followed by poached haddock with poached eggs.

The black coffee and a latte - £3 surcharge - arrived swiftly. After twenty minutes an unrequested and unnecessary jug of cold milk was provided, presumably for the black coffee. The croissant and granola were still being cooked at this point.

They duly arrived and were consumed, in His case, in the manner in which a kidnapped hostage might consume anything. Then there was an elegant pause so that our digestive systems would be ready for the feast that was to come.

At 09:55 hours two plates of view eventually hoved into view. The full English had all the advertised components in place although the bacon looked like it would have passed its best had it been served on the previous day and the black pudding looked like it would require chewing. However, despite the skin forming on the baked beans it was actually an enjoyable plate of food, even if the appearance let it down.

She does not like 'gurgly eggs' (also described in less polite company as eggs with snotty bits) so the act of having placed the order had been a brave one. When it arrived, eventually, a brave face was required and the entirety of one egg was consimed, but the second couldn't be tackled. When asked how was the haddock, She complimented the sauce that it was in.

The toast, especially the white variety, was an excellent example of 'hotel toast' in that it had a once crisp exterior with a pleasing rubbery centre. This may sound like an implied criticism but it isn't. Hotel toast is a speciality of English hotels and is very tricky to replicate at home.  

The staff were very polite, well-presented and friendly, but it remains a mystery how the breakfast took so long to prepare. This turned out to be in our favour as the RHS recommended attractions didn't open until 11am and both are worth visiting. The woodland garden was exceptional, filled with flowering azaleas, rhododendrons and other shrubs, ferns and bracken.

Would we return? Yes.