Generally speaking, a close proximity to the shoot, gun storage, drying room, kennels, good fare and a comfortable bed are the first things I look for when reviewing sporting hotels. I’d now like to throw another one into the ring: the ability to remain undisturbed. There’s nothing sinister in that desire - I’m not like Ivor Novello in The Lodger - because often after a long drive, the kind that ends in the dark, I just want to go to ground, to close that door and potter aimlessly until lights out: no feast in the restaurant, no riotous lock-in, no humming to myself in the corridors at 3am.
The White Swan Inn, set modestly half way up Pickering’s Market Place, ticked most of my boxes, and was just the kind…
