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Brandywine Valley The 19th-century mansion on seven hilltop acres that served as headquarters for the Lima Hunt is now an exceptionally spacious and comfortable B&B. It was acquired in 2001 by Ashley Mon, an antiques dealer from New Orleans, and her husband Glenn, who ran the Super Dome. The Mons, who had run a small B&B in uptown New Orleans, outfitted the Pennsylvania house with their own furnishings and antiques and incorporated substantial upgrades, including free high-speed wireless internet access. The result is one of the more appealing, polished B&B operations in the region, nicely leavened with Southern charm and hospitality. Energetic Ashley has refurbished the common areas and six sizable guest rooms. Each of the latter is newly equipped with air conditioning and king or queen beds, hardwood floors with oriental carpets, TV/VCRs, English toiletries, bottled water, coffeemaker, plush robes, hair dryer, iron and ironing board – "all the things I want when I travel," she says. (She even provides an "oops, I forgot it" drawer with overlooked necessities along with snacks and beverages in a guest refrigerator.) The master bedroom is now the Inverness, an elegant space with kingsize bed, loveseat and sitting area, and wood-burning cast-iron stove in the fireplace topped by a massive mantel mirror. Another favorite is the Windsor, with a half-tester bed ten feet high and an antique chest concealing the TV. Ashley is an anglophile who studied architecture at Oxford University. That explains both the names and the English country décor in the Cambridge Room and the newly paneled bath with wainscoting in the Brighton Room. The third-floor Devon Suite comes with a king bed canopied in sheer netting, two chairs with ottomans and a sofa in an alcove. Her interior refurbishing completed, Ashley restored a carriage house into a child- and dog-friendly two-bedroom cottage and turned another building into an antique and gift shop for guests. With the grace of a Southern belle, she goes about making guests feel at home in a house in which her predecessor raised five children. There’s plenty of home to enjoy: a formal living room/library with grand piano and fireplace, where cordials are put out on the Empire sideboard in the evening; a period billiards room with another fireplace outlined in Delft tiles, an extensive video library and antique games; a huge solarium with casual seats and tables, plants and wicker hampers ready for picnics, a new side terrace, and a majestic front loggia outfitted with lounge chairs overlooking a cascading waterfall and pond filled with koi. Elaborate breakfasts are taken by candlelight amid antique china, crystal and silver at two large damask-covered tables overlooking the side terrace. The meals are so ample that guests say they don’t need lunch. The repast might involve mixed fruit compote, orange croissant french toast and ham one day, and baked pears in cream sauce, eggs florentine and bacon the next. The Sunday specialty is eggs Hamanassett (poached eggs on English muffins with veal sauce) and bananas foster. Ashley, who loves to cook as much as she loves to entertain, wows guests with her baked cheese grits, "though I don’t tell people what it is until they try it." Guests depart well-fed and restored, returning down the winding driveway pasts forests and gardens to U.S. Route 1, a half mile and another world away. (610) 459-3000 or (877) 836-8212. For more information: www.hamanassett.com. E-mail: host@hamanassett.com Six rooms and one carriage house with private baths. Doubles, $155 to $235. Carriage house, $350 to $500. Two-night minimum peak weekends.
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