Linen, and the argument for white

White linen shows everything, which is the point. A sheet that hides a mark is a sheet that is not clean, and a guest who cannot tell is a guest who has to trust us. White means they do not have to.

The rules

• White, and only white. Cotton, heavy, from the same mill since our grandmother's time.
• Boiled, not washed. The machine in the cellar runs at ninety degrees and the sheets come out the colour they went in.
• Line dried when the weather allows, which in the valley is more often than you would think, because of the wind. Dried on the line, they smell of the meadow, and people say so.

The year we tried grey

In 2021 we put grey linen in two rooms, because a magazine had said it was the thing. It looked like a hotel, which the inn is not. The guests said so, kindly, in the book. The grey went to the staff rooms, where it is still in use and still looks like a hotel.

The cost

White cotton at that weight is not cheap, and a sheet lasts about four years before it goes to the rag basket. We replace a fifth of the linen every spring, which is a line in the accounts and a day in the town.

What we will do differently

Nothing. Sixty-four years is long enough to be sure.