The country house hotel comes to the city at the Grange in York. The owner, Jeremy Cassel, aims for a discreet house party atmosphere in this Regency town house a few minutes' walk from the minster and medieval streets.

The Grange's understated elegance is worlds away from the standard chain hotels, whose managers are schooled in such catering business cliches as 'portion control is the key to profitability'.

Guests at the Grange feast on new British cuisine - I recommend the vodka-fuelled roast tomato soup and deep-fried guinea fowl - and choose from a varied French and New World wine list before perambulating to bed with all the dignity they can muster.

My bed was a four-poster, the genuinely old sort, unlike the brand-new, Ikea-style wood and net curtains effort I encountered recently in a holiday cottage. The king-sized Grange bed was as wide as I am tall - not that difficult, at 5ft 7in - and extremely comfortable, with crisp, cotton sheets. The room was well lit and furnished in a relaxed Regency style that included a desk with an array of tourist bumf and a television.

There was a good-size en suite bathroom with a bath deep enough for a really good soak, a powerful over-the-bath shower, lots of fluffy towels on a heated rail and a pair of bathrobes.

Walk for 15 minutes from the hotel and you can reach almost all York's attractions. Nearest is the beautiful minster. How did those computer-deprived medieval architects manage to create so much space inside without it all falling down? A few minutes further away is The Shambles, a narrow street where the buildings' upper floors on either side reach towards one another as though attempting to kiss.

And so back to the Grange for another great meal, just a few doors from the birthplace of W.H.Auden and the building where Guy Fawkes is reputed to have gone to school. Could Fawkes's explosive ways have begun with the vodka-fuelled soup of his age?

· Grange Hotel, 1 Clifton, York. (01904 644744) £128 to £190, including breakfast.