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Located at the southern approaches to the English Lakes, the Masons Arms has recently undergone the now almost traditional refurbishment without involving any major loss of integrity, so that the inn is well able to cope with modern demands, which includes a fifty-seater dining room.

An attractive menu opens with a range of starters and light bites, where you will find smoked haddock chowder in fine form, warm Cumbrian duck sausage and black pudding salad, or a brandy and herb chicken liver pate with a Hawkshead red onion marmalade and toasted muffin.

There is something rather odd about sitting in an ancient Lakeland pub and enjoying a chicken tikka masala, but hey! we live in multicultural times, and there's always fish, chips and mushy peas, or Cumbrian beef and ale pie, not forgetting the vegetable and chick pea cobbler which sounds suspiciously like a culinary attempt to bridge any gaps.

It would be treasonable not to offer a pudding of Cartmel sticky toffee, with special reference to this 'light' regional treasure, and yes, indeed it is light, a welcome change from some encountered in places further afield. But there is also jam roly poly, an all time classic that has become endangered in these calorie-conscious times, as gorgeous as ever, like the return of a long-lost lover.

As a place for a lost weekend, or a setting for a special meal in undemanding surroundings, The Mason Arms has much to commend it.