Some places invite you to do things. Yarlington Lodge, the new address in the Somerset countryside, asks very little, which turns out to be the point. We stayed in The Cottage in the Wall, a short walk across the park from the main house, and within a day we’d stopped checking the time. The estate belongs to The Newt in Somerset. The benefit of a stay at Yarlington Lodge is that you feel you are truly staying at a country house, serviced by The Newt, but without other guests around.
Here are eight reasons to slow down at The Cottage in the Wall.
1. THE COTTAGE IN THE WALL
The cottage sits at the southwest end of the walled garden, built into the old wall. You feel sheltered the moment you close the door. It has four bedrooms, its own door onto the garden and green fields all around, and it runs to your rhythm rather than a hotel’s.
2. A GARDEN OF YOUR OWN
The garden outside the cottage is laid out and looked after for you, so all you have to do is sit in it. Morning coffee, an afternoon with a book, a last glass of wine before dark: it will fill as much of the day as you give it.
3. THE GREENHOUSE
A greenhouse stands at the edge of the garden. It reminds you that you are on a working country estate and not on a stage set. Stand in it for a few minutes with nothing to do, or water the plants while you are there.
4. BREAKFAST FROM THE FARM
Breakfast comes from the estate farm, and you can taste how short its journey was. The eggs, dairy and produce come from a few fields away, and after a day or two the supermarket versions seem a long way off.
5. A KITCHEN WHERE EVERY KNIFE IS SHARP
Cooking is part of the stay, and so is the shopping. The Newt has its own farm shop and a butchery where meat eaters can learn about the cuts and watch the butchers at work. The cottage kitchen is properly equipped, and every knife is sharp. It is a small detail, but it tells you a lot about the people who run the place.
6. BREAKFAST IN THE WINTER GARDEN
The cottage kitchen opens straight into its own winter garden, and that is where breakfast belongs. You sit among glass and plants with the garden just outside, whatever the Somerset weather is doing. On a grey morning there is no better seat in the county.
7. COLOUR AND DESIGN
The cottage has been decorated with real confidence. The colours are chosen with care, the design is considered without being precious, and the rooms are made to be lived in. Well chosen furniture and accessories set off the natural colours and materials, and many of them are worth a second look. These accents come from Karen Roos, a former editor of ELLE Decoration South Africa. Today she directs the interiors and gardens of the properties she owns with her husband, Koos Bekker, among them Babylonstoren in the Cape Winelands and The Newt in Somerset.
8. MORNING LENGTHS IN A PRIVATE, HEATED POOL
The day starts best in the pool, and the walk there is half the pleasure. The three houses share a heated outdoor pool, 22 metres long, with an indoor jacuzzi next to it. You put on your dressing gown, cross the grounds in the early light and swim your first lengths in warm water. Then you walk back to the cottage, where breakfast is waiting in the winter garden. It is a habit that is easy to get used to.
“We spent a weekend there and came back to London unhurried.”