For lack of tact, a note on the bar menu at the Manners Arms takes some beating. “The intentionally distressed furniture,” it says, “is just one example of what makes us different from the ‘tired look’ inadvertently favoured by many innkeepers locally.” Rather poor Manners, I’d say.

And that’s a pity, because this former hunting lodge of the Dukes of Rutland (the Manners family) is a smart and lively place, and, at £80 for a double room, a bargain.

Seven miles (11km) west of Grantham, it’s up a gentle hill in Knipton, an estate village of Belvoir Castle, which looms, in all its overbearing vastness, just around the corner. The brick-built hotel looks unenticingly plain from the outside, but the interior was refurbished last year under the eye of the current Duchess.

She has combined contemporary design with antiques culled from the castle’s attics, creating an atmosphere somewhere between a country-house party and a local pub gone upmarket.

The ten bedrooms are named after various family members. Ours, with its pleasant view of sheep grazing on a hillside, was called The Hunting Duke . . . and here he was, the Victorian 6th Duke, gazing rather blankly out of a framed portrait with his gun and his gundogs, but not a pheasant in sight.

The room was comfortable, enterprisingly painted in olive and plum, and with four small reading lamps that made it cosily atmospheric, if a bit dim for reading. There were lots of nice touches — posh toiletries, fluffy bathrobes, slippers — but it lacked fine-tuning. The shower door (no bath) wouldn’t close, the washbasin light didn’t work, and the biscuit box contained only crumbs.

Come eight o’clock and the brasserie-style restaurant was buzzing with people having a good time, thanks to the well-spaced tables (no overheard conversations) and the friendly, attentive staff (no airs and graces).

The food appears to be designed for eating, not artistic appreciation, so my wife’s roast vegetable parcels tasted far better than they looked (an unappealing mound). Like my otherwise delicious baked sea bass, however, they were perhaps a little oily. The cheese board was generous, though the passionfruit brûlée lacked one crucial component: the taste of passionfruit.

No matter: we enjoyed the evening hugely. The hotel brochure, incidentally, points out that the chef “cooks with much local flare”, which must risk charring.

Bottom line: Stephen McClarence paid £80 for a double room, including breakfast.

Sampling the fare: A two-course dinner for two came to £62, including a bottle of house wine (£12.50), water and coffee.

What we think: Fresh and friendly.

Best thing: The lively atmosphere.

Worst thing: The empty biscuit box.

Access all areas: Wheelchair access to restaurant and bar, but not to bedrooms.

Need to know: Manners Arms (01476 879222, www.mannersarms.com), Croxton Road, Knipton, near Grantham, Leicestershire.

Room: 7 out of 10.

Food: 7 out of 10.

Service: 9 out of 10.

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