Seeking the perfect Christmas venue, I found myself comfortably seated in a commodious leather settee besides a roaring log fire in Puesdown Inn, a former coaching inn dating from the 13th century and reputed to be haunted. Thanks to the geniality of the enthusiastic couple who run it, this attractive Cotswolds hostelry links Christmas past with Christmas present perfectly. Puesdown Inn stands back from the A40, midway between Cheltenham and Burford. It takes its name from ancient English and means windy ridge, which is quite apt, given its position 800ft above sea level on the ancient Salt Way. As its name is also an anagram for 'snowed up', it's easy to imagine earlier days when stagecoaches rattled down the turnpike road from Cheltenham to Oxford and people really did get snowed up in the inn.

As for the ghosts, the ghost of the highwayman or poacher who is said to knock on the door and re-enact the moment he fell dead at the feet of the landlord who opened the door to him 200 years ago, and the ghostly coach and horses which are said to stand in forecourt on dark, starless nights - they have not been seen for years. That said, Maggie Armstrong, who runs the Puesdown with her chef/husband John, does recall a menacing moment when three trays of champagne glasses, filled and ready to be handed to wedding guests, were knocked out of the waitresses' hands. Maggie witnessed the young waitresses' trays being pushed upwards by an invisible force, causing the glasses to spill. Happily, it never happened again.

During the past two years, the Puesdown Inn has been lovingly refurbished by John and Maggie, who have married the old with the new. There are small rooms boasting cosy corners and an airy dining room. Hollywood memorabilia and evidence of their travels to the Middle East adorn the walls.

I was there to taste John's mutton pudding, inspired by one of Mrs Beeton's recipes, but seasoned with flourishes from the 21st century. This is a Christmas dish which would have been eaten by those unable to afford turkey in times past.

Written in the 1860s, Mrs Beeton's recipe for this dish is about as basic as you can get. It calls for chump end of the loin of mutton to be chopped and placed in a pudding basin lined with suet crust made with milk, then seasoned with salt and pepper, and topped up with a little water before sealing with more suet paste. According to Mrs Beeton's instructions, the whole thing should then be wrapped and boiled for at least three hours. Anyone who gets nostalgic for the good old days and traditional dishes should note the lack of flavouring ingredients, such as mushrooms, herbs or rich mutton stock. The only extra she suggested was an onion, but even that was listed as optional, only to be added if the flavour was liked.

The mutton pudding I was served at the Puesdown Inn was simply delicious, and, as you can see, came served with a rich dark sauce and in individual portions that had certainly not sat in a steamer for three hours. John's pudding contained mushrooms, too, and all the herbs necessary for extra flavour, which is only to be expected from a chef who is a member of the Academy of Culinary Arts's Mutton Renaissance Club. He gets much of his mutton from local butchers who take sheep from Prince Charles's Highgrove Farm.

What fun it would have been to have conducted a taste test before that roaring log fire, standing today's pudding against Mrs Beeton's bland recipe, which was undoubtedly served at the Puesdown Inn during the Victorian period.

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management was written for the increasingly frenetic lifestyle of an expanding middle class. The majority of her instructions were designed to be carried out by servants. She made it plain that the mistress of the house was not expected to soil her hands. Her objective was to teach housewives how to please their husbands by successfully running his household. Mrs Beeton declared that while the mistress of the house was not expected to labour in the kitchen, she should, nevertheless, be thoroughly acquainted with the theory of cookery.

It is doubtful whether Mrs Beeton ever worked in her kitchen or even wrote the recipes herself, though it's clear that the instructions on etiquette and running a household were her own, as she certainly had pretty rigid rules about who did what, particularly at Christmas when the roast turkey is brought to the table.

Mrs Beeton classifies roast turkey as a noble dish and remarks that a Christmas dinner with the middle classes of the empire would scarcely be a Christmas dinner without its turkey. She goes on to say that it's hard to imagine an object of greater envy than the turkey when presented by a respected portly paterfamilias carving it himself and carving it well. There is no suggestion anywhere in her book, that the woman of the house should carve the roast. And, in keeping with Victorian prudishness, she decries the cutting off of the roast turkey legs at table, these she says are to be removed to the kitchen and served at a bachelors' supper-table.

One dish in Mrs Beeton's repertoire that John has copied faithfully is her traditional Christmas pudding, and with great success. It proved so popular he has been selling whole puddings for people to take away. This is one dish in The Book of Household Management that really has withstood the test of time.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the Puesdown Inn's mutton pudding, I'd like to raise a glass to festive traditions and the modern flourishes we now add to them.