’M PRETTY sure the Elizabethans would have experienced the same bonhomie on welcome when The Pig at Combe was first built, in 1580, as we did on arrival. Walking through the front door into the 16th-century hall, there is no stuffy reception desk but a buzzy bar area, roaring fire, acres of seating and wood panelling. It’s the sort of welcome you’d expect at a country house, not necessarily a country house hotel. And it exudes
