Celebrity chef's Yew Tree Inn shows off modern Hampshire, while The Vyne connects to the old

Today, the northern part of Hampshire ... my current home ... is just 45 minutes from central London on a fast train.

For most of history, however, it was deep countryside. Unconnected by main roads and free of big cities, the cosmopolitan cut and thrust of the capital might as well have been another country. Towns were deeply provincial and country estates were the centre of their own universe. It's a world compellingly pictured in the recent, popular TV series "Downton Abbey", filmed half an hour from here, at Highclere Castle.

The village of Highclere still paints a cozy, pastoral, back-of-beyond picture, but the reality is far more cosmopolitan. Rail connections to London, nearby roads that feed quickly to major motorways and the proximity to Newbury, home to Vodafone's world HQ, mean that villages like this one are flush with sophisticated and well-heeled corporate types who flit seamlessly between urban and rural life. Which makes it the perfect location for a London celebrity chef to buy the local and turn it into his vision of the perfect gastropub. Enter Marco Pierre White and the Yew Tree Inn.

An venerable old tile-roofed building on a leafy lane, it's accented with heavy doors, small leaded windows and low beams. The interior is divided into a succession of snug areas with a few tables in each, so there's really no sense of how many people are actually eating here. The decor signals this is more upscale than your standard pub, with tidy white walls hung with pen-and-ink sketches and watercolours, and crisp white linens on the tables. But it's all subtle enough to still evoke a laid-back, countryside mood.

The menu is English classics with a posh twist, as evidenced by the house cocktail: an English kir royale made from Sussex sparkling wine and locally produced blackcurrant liqueur. I started with asparagus ('tis the season) baked with a quail's egg. There was plenty of cheese and butter in that dish, combining for a luxurious treat. Probably not the wisest choice for the diet and, frankly, probably an insult to the asparagus, which was rather lost in the other ingredients. As good as this vegetable is in season, I probably would have enjoyed it just as much lightly steamed and unadorned. Reports from around the table were mixed on the other starters. The beetroot salad was visually stunning with light and sharp flavours but the chicken terrine was a bit dry and underwhelming.

On to the mains, for which all of the girls at the table opted for the hake on a bed of creamed leeks. Like the asparagus, the high-fat preparation neatly destroyed the healthy benefits of the fish. But in this case, it was worth every calorie. The perfectly judged trio of rich cream, mellow vegetable and succulent bacon worked beautifully together, providing a great complement to the elegantly simple fillet on top. The man had lamb, mostly because it's the one meat we rarely have at home. (I can't stand the stuff.) Prepared two ways ... confit leg and loin ... he reported complete satisfaction. Like the rest of the menu, puddings were big on traditional English, with possets, Eton mess and sticky toffee pudding heading the lineup. I went for the latter; not the best I've ever had, but certainly in the top third. Elsewhere the chocolate muffin was done a disservice by its name (it was really a dense chocolate cake) but got rave reviews, as did its accompaniment of mint chocolate chip ice cream. The more restrained at the table went for the plate of English cheeses, an admirable selection from the across the country.

The next day we walked off a few of those calories at a place that exemplifies Hampshire long before Vodafone, high speed trains and celebrity chefs: The Vyne. This National Trust property is only about 15 minutes outside of Basingstoke, but the way it's nestled down winding, wooded country lanes gives you a sense of how isolated it once was. It began as a rambling Tudor pile built by one of Henry VIII's early ministers, and successive owners have layered their own contemporary touches onto it over the years. It's not one of the country's blockbuster stately homes, but it's a lovely place that tells the story of an aristocratic country estate on a manageable scale.

Amongst the highlights are a wonderful neoclassical staircase cutting through the centre of the house, flowing and dividing in unusual ways to cut the core into all sorts of different views, nooks and crannies; a rare print room that captures the DIY decorating trend that was all the rage with proper ladies in the early 19th century; a library whose magnificent wooden bookshelves were re-made from carved pews pinched from the local church, now crowned with a set of marble busts of the world's great writers; and probably the loveliest Tudor-era chapel in any private home. This one has rare original stained glass of tremendous quality, particularly interesting in that it shows Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The Vyne also claims a bit of fame thanks to local girl Jane Austen, who used to attend parties here. Evidently she didn't think much of the family, but did end up basing the character of Fanny Price on one of the wives, whose portrait you can see in a bedroom upstairs.

While old, unconnected Hampshire might not have had sophisticated gastropubs, there was plenty of elegance in places like The Vyne, which introduced the first classical portico ever used on a domestic building, and has a classical brick summer house that could have been a Roman senator's tomb. These days, Hampshire offers the best of both worlds. Escape from it all, or stay connected. Go modern, or touch history. No wonder it's such a popular county with people who want to strike a balance between the bright lights and offices of London, and the timeless appeal of the English countryside.