After a blissful day relaxing at the Herb House Spa in the New Forest we took ourselves off to our lodgings for the night at The Pig in Brockenhurst where our rooms were waiting for us.
Our double room was on the first floor of the main house and had a great big sash window in it that I felt compelled to open as soon as we entered the room.
The upstairs landing was sparingly and yet elegantly furnished with a gilt framed mirror, a grandfather clock and curiosities on a chest of drawers.
Downstairs the sitting rooms were tastefully decorated in a manner that gave the place a lived-in, slightly aged and relaxed feeling.
The bar was stunning, it had coloured glass on multiple shelves that lay across a large window making the colours glow with natural daylight.
On offer was a huge selection of beverages including home-made sloe gin and some local Isle of Purbeck beers.
As with any old house, the outside beckoned.
At the back of the house were the kitchen gardens where vegetables are rotated in beds to keep home-grown produce reaching maturity at different times through out the year.
Beyond the walls of the kitchen garden a greenhouse with a lovely tiled floor was open to guests to wander in and look at the carefully tended plants inside.
Further on still lay a pond with bee hives on the far side and a potting shed at the other end of a bridge. The sign read
treatment in progress do not disturb.
Back at the front of the house surrounded by an ample lawn, vast trees spread out their branches and a huge swing hung from an outstretched limb.
There was croquet on the lawn, benches to sit on and pre-dinner wine was delivered on a tray.
