236 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
236 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
travel
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hotels
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ukhotels
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8105423
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# Victoria's Secrets: Lime Wood and Coworth Park
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## Coworth Park in Virginia Water and Lime Wood in the New Forest represent a
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classy new breed of country-house hotel, says Victoria Mather.
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![Victoria's Secrets: Lime Wood and Coworth Park][1]
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Image 1 of 3
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'The Dower House would be the perfect place for a polo house party or a girls'
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weekend. 5,000 a night? Because you - and it - are worth it' Photo: JASON
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FORD
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![Victoria's Secrets: Lime Wood and Coworth Park][2]
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Image 1 of 3
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'Coworth is The Dorchester in the country ? if you can call Virginia Water the
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country'
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![Victoria's Secrets: Lime Wood and Coworth Park][3]
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Image 1 of 3
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'Lime Wood is the place for the Bodens rather than the Birkins'
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By Victoria Mather 5:11PM GMT 02 Nov 2010
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[Comments][4]
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Cool or bling? Contemporary or olde worlde? Sophisticated, relaxed, eco, up-
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yer-bum - the English country-house hotel has been through all these
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incarnations and reinvented itself yet again. Ladies and gentleman, a drum-
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roll for Coworth Park and Lime Wood.
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Once upon a time there was the grand English country house of which we have
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been so forcibly reminded by blissful _Downton Abbey_. The first country-house
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hotels sought to ape that tradition, imagining that waiters in acetate silk
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striped waistcoats would fool guests into thinking they were being smarmed by
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the footmen _de nos jours_.
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There were also lashings of chintz and log fires at such places as Chewton
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Glen, which was the indubitable king of this particular heap. Fast-forward to
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the 21st century and such hip country-house hotels as Babington would have had
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the Dowager Countess of Grantham gasping "What is an hotel?"
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Eleven years after Babington House opened, the game has once again been upped:
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by Coworth Park and Lime Wood. Coworth is The Dorchester in the country − if
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you can call Virginia Water the country. While The Dorchester, owned by the
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Sultan of Brunei, is bling, Coworth most definitely is not. Just 35 minutes
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after one has boarded the train at Clapham Junction, that gateway to romance,
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one is being whisked up the drive through a ravishing wildflower meadow. The
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Georgian main house, or The Mansion House, as it likes to be called, is
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creamy-dreamy, all decorated in impossibly good taste by Martin Hulbert of Fox
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Linton Associates. So, too, are The Stables (Coworth has its own polo field),
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which have been converted into urbane-rustic suites, and the Gardener's
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Cottage, which won't be seeing many gardeners sullying its linens and cashmere
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at £530 a night plus VAT.
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## Related Articles
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* [Victoria's Secrets: Forte dei Marmi, Italy][5]
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05 Sep 2010
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* [Victoria's Secrets: escaping the museum bore][6]
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16 May 2010
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* [Victoria's Secrets: in search of glamour][7]
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03 Mar 2010
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* [Victoria's secrets: the joys of a grand hotel][8]
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02 Nov 2009
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* [Victoria's Secrets: the kindness of strangers][9]
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13 May 2009
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* [Victoria's secrets: the new world order][10]
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04 Nov 2008
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The hot secret is The Dower House. How often has your hotel bedroom had an
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Aga? Not actually in the bedroom, but in the kitchen beneath it. The garden
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has a stream and pond with swans seemingly glued to the surface. Give it a few
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Joanna Trollopes and the illusion of a country retreat would be complete, the
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perfect place for a polo house party, or a girls' weekend, buttled to bits by
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Said, who worked at Coworth when it was a private house. £5,000 a night?
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Because you, and it, are worth it.
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Coworth charges like the Light Brigade. Yet reality bites in The Barn, the
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informal diner with stone floors (so you can keep your wellies on), oak tables
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and the world's best cottage pie. Chef John Campbell is overseeing the food at
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Coworth. Frankly, his posh restaurant terrifies me: a food temple with pin-
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thin women, their Hermes Birkins bigger than their bodies, guiding their
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guests in by iPhone: "You turn right by the Sheikh of Araby's house, left at
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the Prince of Diddlysquat's stud. You can't miss it." Give me the fish and
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chips at The Barn; simple, organic comfort food in season. Give me the spa,
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too. If Grace Kelly were a spa, she would be Coworth's. It is white blonde
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elegance, with masses of daylight and treatments that are soporifically
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brilliant. The indoor pool, with tiny pearly tiles, glows lilac; the colours
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change at night. As they do in the shower experience", which seemed
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claustrophobically like a cross between a disco and a gas chamber.
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Coworth Park is sophisticated contemporary with a dash of eco; the spa roof is
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sedum, the underground biomass boiler fed by sustainable willow grown on the
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estate. Eco speaks to the modern guest; it is what makes the uber-eco Scarlet
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Hotel in Cornwall such a sensation and so cool.
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Lime Wood, in the New Forest, is cool. Not so cool that the staff make you
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feel they're cooler than you (a Babington fault), but funky. David Collins has
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created the bedrooms with a rockstar wand and many rockers will stay there.
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It's Robin Hutson's baby, he formerly of Soho House and a founder of Hotel du
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Vin. Hutson knows about fun; come Christmas, the Do Not Disturb signs will be
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carved wooden reindeer. Plus, there's a play area and beds for dogs. Dogs are
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quintessential English country house, but rarely welcomed at hotels.
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At Lime Wood there's a great scrubbed table in the kitchen where you can have
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dinner with madness all around you. And the spa… my dear, how far we have come
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from the dreaded health farm. A private treatment room with its own pool,
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another with its own garden? A raw bar with champagne, a herbiary, a mud
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house? I think I might take to spas after all
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So bring on the new country house hotel. Lime Wood is the place for the Bodens
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rather than the Birkins, where Sophie Dahl was married, that the Babington
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crowd will love. Whereas, Coworth was used as one of the judges' houses for
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_The X Factor_. I think, under that featherlight, zillion-threadcount duvet, I
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was sleeping in Cheryl Cole's bed.
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_[coworthpark.com][11] _
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_[limewoodhotel.co.uk][12] _
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[What are these?][14]
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* Share: [Share][13] [ ][15] [ ][16]
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[Tweet][17]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotels/ukhotels/8105423/Victorias-Secrets-
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Lime-Wood-and-Coworth-Park.html
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Telegraph
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## [UK hotels][18]
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* ### [Travel »][19]
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* ### [Hotels »][20]
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* ### [UK »][21]
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* ### [Luxury travel »][22]
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* ### [Ultratravel »][23]
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In travel
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[![St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel opens after lengthy restoration][24]
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][25]
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### [St Pancras hotel restored][25]
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[![Easter hotels: four of the best][26] ][27]
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### [The best Easter hotels][27]
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[![London hotels under 100: four of the best][28] ][29]
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### [London hotels under 100][29]
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[![British coaching inns: four of the best][30] ][31]
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### [British coaching inns][31]
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[X][13] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][14]
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Share:
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* [ ][13]
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* [ ][15]
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* [ ][16]
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* [Tweet][17]
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* Advertisement
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![][32]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][33] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][34]
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Advertisement
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## [Telegraph Cottages »][35]
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* [UK][36]
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* [FRANCE][37]
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* [ITALY][38]
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Loading
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[View more Telegraph Cottages here][35]
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