Braka and Graham are both strong personalities with a bold sense of style and a common interest in nature.

WSJ: The Perfect English Country Inn

London art dealer Ivor Braka recalls a breakfast at Les Deux Magots in Paris, where Joe consumed 14 croissants.

FORBES: The Art of the Deal

"We wanted the Gunton Arms to become not just a destination but a genuine social focus for the area, " says Braka.

WSJ: The Perfect English Country Inn

Braka, one of London's leading art dealers, is a tall, proudly skinny man well known for his occasional Alice Cooper eye makeup and a general heavy-metal aesthetic that he nurtures.

WSJ: The Perfect English Country Inn

During a walk in the park five weeks into their relationship, Braka asked Graham what he should do about the pub, and her immediate response was, "Well, buy it, of course, darling!"

WSJ: The Perfect English Country Inn

"Stuart has tremendous presence and charisma, " says Braka.

WSJ: The Perfect English Country Inn

Over the next 25 years, Braka, along with two partners, purchased fields as they came up for sale and slowly restored the parkland to its original state, planting more than half a million trees of mixed broadleaf varieties oak, ash, chestnut and blackthorn.

WSJ: The Perfect English Country Inn

Next to them, also joining the conversation, is Lord Suffield, with his wife and children. (The Suffields, the original owners of the park, are still part owners with Braka and a third partner, architect Kit Martin.) Most people know one another, and the Brakas delight in this loyal, local clientele.

WSJ: The Perfect English Country Inn

Although most of the furniture was bought by Braka and Graham, the couple enlisted Robert Kime, the celebrated decorator who was appointed by the Prince of Wales to renovate Clarence House, to design the bedrooms and sitting rooms in his trademark style of fine upholstery mixed with English and Ottoman fabrics.

WSJ: The Perfect English Country Inn