Cream tea, art, sex and scandal | Review: Hotel Endsleigh, Devon

I always worry about rural weekends, about how they’re going to be spoiled by boredom and traffic, indifferent food and rain. But I “got” the Hotel Endsleigh right away: handsome, 200 years old, all burnished mahogany and exuberant flower displays. Sometimes, it takes a while to figure out why people bother. The dull greys and worn out browns of middling English hospitality do nothing for me. This was different: old, yes, but refreshed. It comes complete with sexual intrigue too.

Proper cream tea on the expansive lawn was a good start: the real McCoy with warm scones and silver strainers. I had elderly ladies to my left and two young men with a Shih Tzu to my right. The greenery stretched down to a distant river with an uninterrupted view beyond: dark forestry and distant Cornish moors. The River Tamar’s rushing waters and still pools are apparently perfect for salmon… in Devon? No matter, the estate extends to a hundred acres of variegated greenery and flora to wander. The fish can be dealt with later, using a knife and fork. The building, once a handsome sporting lodge looks vaguely Scottish, its dining room of dark wood paneling and family crests seem more Highland than West Country.

It’s in the middle of nowhere, built in 1810 as a retreat for The Duke of Bedford and his sizeable family of thirteen. Designer Olga Polizzi has restored it with panache, inheriting along the way the adoration of gardening geeks. The grounds are the work of one Humphry Repton, successor to Capability Brown, who transformed hundreds of 18th century estates, among them Brighton Pavilion. Endsleigh was his last job and is pretty damn spectacular.

The Scottish flavour comes from Georgy – Georgina, Duchess of Bedford, second wife of the Duke and mother to ten of his children. Probably. She came from Highland nobility and fell in love with the valley. Artisans and tradesman were imported to create a faux Scottish landscape, a cosy retreat to remind Georgy of her childhood. It still works, two centuries on, a Grade One listed building surrounded by vast swathes of forestry in which to get lost among fairy dells, caves and waterfalls.

But Georgy used the estate for more than just relaxation. Queen Victoria’s favourite painter Edwin Landseer – creator of the iconic, much copied stag portrait Monarch of the Glen – was special friends with Georgy. For 30 years. They scandalised court life with their brazen relationship and at least one of Georgy’s children is said to be Landseer’s, possibly three. The Duke, fifteen years her senior, tolerated this friendship with benefits on the basis that what made her happy suited him, and Landseer, who eventually died insane, accepted it all too, despite the Duke being his most valuable patron. Georgy had the status and comfort of the Duke’s world, the sex and excitment of Landseer’s.

Standing in the little valley, a stream trickling by under a rickety old bridge, the rocks above me suddenly became more interesting. “Up there,” someone gestured, “is where they, er, sat“.

Georgy had already spent many happy Scottish summers with Landseer to paint his famous landscapes and stags, but this was their private little nest. He did some remarkably intimate sketches and, in much the same way that we have naked selfies and sex tapes today, those sketches are available to view in the Royal Academy. Take that Facebook! C

Endsleigh House, Milton Abbot, Tavistock, Devon PL19 0PQ UK
01822 870000; hotelendsleigh.com