COUNTRY RETREAT | FOUR SEASONS HAMPSHIRE

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know we just got back from an indulgent weekend at five-star country retreat Four Seasons, Hampshire – an old country estate and once-upon-a-time a residence of Henry VIII. We’ve never treated ourselves to a stay so close to home but, with costs saved on travel, I’ve come to realise it really is worth exploring havens like this right on our doorsteps.

Having hour-long treatments booked for 30 minutes after arriving meant a quick suitcase-drop and puppy walk before wrapping ourselves in fluffy white robes and pattering off to the slick and shiny spa. Here, we surrendered to spoiling, oily, muscle-melting massages – Deeply Warming Clove and Eucalyptus Massage (using hot stones) and a Specific Back Massage – both of which are highly recommended and did wonders for stubborn, knotty muscles and the inevitable hunching that comes with the cold snap. Emerging back into the real world an hour later, we were fully immersed into spa life and swam, steamed and sauna-ed on rotate before retiring back to our room.

Dinner was a three-course triumph. We had the usual problem of wanting everything on the menu so looked to our waiter and sommelier – both clued-up and charming – to give us a steer and this is where we ended up:

Starter

Orkney Scallops – gentleman’s relish – brown shrimps sea vegetables – sorrel – cobnut praline

Chicken Wings – ale glazed – poached egg – smoked English pancetta watercress –

smoked chicken jus

Main

Halibut – crab – cauliflower purée smoked dumplings – fennel oil

Cornish Lamb – shoulder cannelloni – smoked artichoke purée onion textures – camomile

Dessert

Selection of English Cheeses

Chocolate Fondant

The following morning we gorged on the mother of all breakfasts. Despite romantic notions of breakfast in bed, the salmon bagels, fresh-from-the-chicken-coop organic eggs, multi-coloured berries, waffles, freshly squeezed orange juice and coffees were physically too much to haul onto the duvet with us. A whole table was necessary, so we once again found ourselves turning to our fluffy white robes and – for a short while – slippers before Luna’s under-the-table slipper sweep resulted with them all in her bed instead.

In a bid to work off a potential food coma, we strolled around a two-mile circuit spying river side crannies, kissing gates, gaggles of geese and making friends with shaggy highland cattle on our travels.

It wasn’t enough time and we weren’t ready to leave, but I imagine at somewhere like this

you never are.