The Inn at Phillips Mill, in
Pennsylvania, has the flavor of
a French country inn.

Inn Love:
Ten Of The Best B&Bs

Honeymooners will find
luxury and privacy
at these East Coast
b ed- and-breakfasts .

BY ANNE BENNETT
SWINGLE

64 Brides 1990

glowing fire, the smell one snowy day, when it was too mean
of woodsmoke, a cup of to ski on Mt. Snow, they looked at
spiced tea, the warmth of properties in nearby West Dover with
a puffy down comforter on a realtor. By day's end, they were the
a four poster — such are the comforts owners of a 190-year-old barn. It was
of an oldfashioned inn. Following are a working barn — home to horses and
10 inns along the East Coast, each a cows, not to mention rats, mice and
romantic retreat where — after the bats. Undaunted, Rodney, an archi-
wedding madness — the two of you tect, and Ione, an interior designer, set
to work tearing down the walls and
can get away, alone, together.
Some are classic bed-and-break- shoring up the beams. Soon, people
fasts; others more closely resemble were coming from far and wide to
luxury hotels and reflect the current sample the pleasures of what has
trend to more elegant lodging. Where come to be known as The Inn At
once bed-and-breakfasts were the Sawmill Farm.
Sawmill is a 21-room country inn
creation of a couple, typically retired,
who would rent out spare bedrooms situated on a hillside overlooking the
to earn extra income, now these rural village of West Dover. There are
hostelries are catering to a more 12 rooms in the main building and 10
luxury-conscious traveler. They have fireplace cottages. Book the cottages,
developed into mini-hotels, complete for they are intensely private, perfect
with such amenities as jacuzzis, fire- for honeymooners.
Throughout the inn, the accent is
places, brandy and Godiva chocolates
on Victoriana and "country" Ameri-
at bedtime.
A night's stay at one of these choice cana. The rich, dark walls are hung
inns varies widely in price from a with gleaming copper pots, farm
modest $60 to a whopping $490 for kitchen implements, and art — 19th
a double room without dining. (Unless century portraits, primitives, and land-
otherwise stated, all rates are for one scapes. In winter, a fire is always burn-
ing in the fireplace; tea is served in
night, double occupancy.)
late afternoon. "We like to think the
inn has a blend of sophistication and
The Inn At Sawmill Farm, yet is unpretentious," says Rodney
West Dover, Vermont
Williams.
Rodney and lone Williams had
Dinner — in one of three dining
been coming to Vermont for years rooms — is a romantic affair complete
from their home in New Jersey when `with candlelight and classical music.

A