Brampton’s charming character derives from both its house and its grounds. The inn is set in the fields south of Chester-town, framed by two towering, 120-year-old spruce trees at the end of a long drive. It’s a three-story brick building with a white columned porch and 14 front windows, the perfect gentleman-farmer’s country seat. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as are 4 of its surrounding 35 acres (the site of some famous experiments in crop rotation). Enter and pass through the airy foyer into a bookcase-linedlivingroom, or climb the solid-walnut staircase. This front section of Brampton was built around 1860 by Henry Ward Carville as a wedding present to his wife.
Upstairs in the seven guest rooms the present owner’s excellent taste becomes apparent. Michael Hanscom spent 10 years in San Francisco renovating old homes before moving here. His Swiss wife, Danielle, is responsible for the European atmosphere in the guest rooms. The bed linen and towels look and smell as if they’ve been dried on a line in the Alps. Every room except the suite has a working fireplace or a wood-burning stove. The ceilings on the second floor are 11 feet high. The Yellow Room at the front of the house is a favorite, a sunny paradise with an antique lace canopy above the bed. The two third-floor rooms are tucked under the sloping eaves and are decorated in country style, with locally crafted chairs and trundle beds.
The Hanscoms have operated Brampton for more than 10 years, and they’ve made many additions: a mammoth Vulcan commercial stove that enables them to offer guests a choice of breakfast entrees; a TV room downstairs; and the Rose Room, outfitted with a king-size bed and a large private bath (but reached by a staircase so narrow that Danielle advises no one over 6 feet to book this unit).
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