August 25, 2008

EUROPE | ENGLAND

A Very British Portrait

By Mark Jolly

At Ashdown Park you don’t just get to live the English Country Life – you get to paint it, too.

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When former Ashdown Park owner Thomas Charles Thompson died in 1892, he bequeathed a formal black suit to each of his servants so they would be smartly attired for his funeral. Today — after various incarnations as a convent, a college and a convalescent home for WWI soldiers — the English country house has been reborn as Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club. And yes, gents: for dinner, you still require a jacket. On October 3-5, however, guests might want to pack the smocks: that’s when the hotel hosts its first in a series of painting weekends, geared towards artists of all levels.

Led by Juliet Murray, a local artist known for her images of the surrounding Sussex countryside, the workshop will school participants (up to 12) in pastel techniques amid 186 acres of landscaped gardens, carp-filled lakes and ancient woodlands. You can also expect the requisite afternoon tea, garden buffets and table d’hote dinners at the award-winning Anderida restaurant. Lodgings consist of 106 rooms, all individually styled, and some with four-poster beds and spa baths.

Part of Elite Hotels’ portfolio of historic houses (that includes Luton Hoo and Tylney Hall), Ashdown is the quintessential English manor in every respect: velveteen croquet lawns, free-roaming deer and an 18-hole golf course next door. Beyond the grounds, you’ll find nearby hiking trails in Ashdown Forest, in addition to famed racecourse Lingfield Park and Pooh Corner, a 300-year-old shop in the village of A.A. Milne (and the proud purveyor of the world’s largest collection of Poohphernalia).

But the real standouts of the region are to be found at the nearby National Trust sites — namely Sheffield Park Garden and Wakehurst Place. The former is one of the great landscaped gardens of southeast England; the latter is Kew’s “sister garden” and aims to house seeds from 10 percent of the planet’s entire flora by 2009.

If that sounds a tad ambitious, it’s worth noting that the National Trust has long been ahead of the green trend: Founded in 1895, the world’s oldest and largest conservation organization is now focusing on sustainable activities (alongside its stewardship of Britain’s great estates, gardens and historical sites). And through the Royal Oak Foundation — NT’s affiliate partner in the US — American visitors can now visit any number of the 350 destinations for just $55 per year. But keep it buttoned when you get there: the Brits are paying nearly twice that much for the very same privilege.