A visit to Keswick Hall is like spending a weekend with friends in the English countryside—that is, ifthose friends are very wealthy and live in a vast house with armies of antiques, plump chairs and couches, a butler to serve drinks, and a golf course in the backyard. Keswick sits on 600 acres in the wooded, rolling countryside east of Charlottesville. It’s owned by Sir Bernard Ashley, who was married to the late Laura Ashley, so fabrics and furnishings from the company are used throughout. Tiny floral prints, though, do not dominate the place. In-stead, fabrics, none of which are repeated, run the gamut from crisp stripes to elegant brocades. Sir Bernard’s per-sonal collection of antiques, century-old books, paintings, and silver-framed family photos gives the house the lived-in-for-generations look. An innkeeping colleague of Ashley’s once said, some-what in awe, that each interior door alone contains $1,000 worth of hardware.
Bedrooms are individually decorated in color schemes ranging from soft beige and white to crisp blues to cozy dark green. All have comfy chairs, couches, or cushioned window seats. Baths have extra touches, such as whirlpool tubs in six rooms, extralong tubs in several others, heated towel racks, hair dryers, an abundance of thick towels, terry-cloth robes, and dishes with cottonballs. Some rooms have private terraces with golf-course views, and several have decorative fireplaces.
Visitors want to loaf here, perhaps in front of a roaring fire on chilly days, lingering over coffee and the paper in the sunny morning room, having afternoon tea with delicate madeleines and scones in the yellow Crawford Lounge, or penring a letter at Sir Bernard’s desk in the library. The all-red snooker room is the spot for predinner drinks and canapes and a late-night brandy, served by the friendly butler.
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