The house
Twelve rooms, one sitting, and a boot room that earns its keep
Marram was a sail loft and two cottages before anybody thought of letting rooms in it. Most of what is odd about the building is because of that, and we have left it odd.
The stairs are steep because they were made for men carrying canvas. The sail loft, now Lymegrass, keeps its hoist beam across the ceiling. The courtyard rooms were the cottages, and their walls are three feet of rubble stone, which is why they are the warmest rooms in February and the coolest in July.
Dinner
Half past seven, one sitting, at two long tables. There is one menu and it changes when the boats change it. If you tell us a fortnight ahead we will cook around anything; if you tell us on the night we will do what we can with what is in the kitchen.
The boot room
Boots in every size from a child’s four upward, a drying rack that works, the tide board, and a shelf of binoculars that belong to the house and do not need asking for. Wet things go here and not in the rooms.
Dogs, children and the other rules
One dog, in Dunlin, and in the boot room. Children over eight anywhere except Lymegrass, where the hoist beam is at head height on the landing. No music in the courtyard after ten, because the courtyard rooms have their windows on it.
Why the rates are on the same page as the arithmetic
Because a guest who can see why booking direct is cheaper tends to book direct the next time without being asked, and because we would rather argue the number in public than discover a guest thinks we quote one rate here and another somewhere else.