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<p>In the fall of 2003, the boutique-hotel chain Red Carnation bought an 18th-century manor house that dominates an out-of-the-way Dorset village. Beatrice Tollman, the company's colorful South African–born founder, added seven rooms to the original 17 and transformed every inch of the place, at a cost of some $9.5 million. Tollman has decorated each room with an attention to detail that makes visitors feel as though they were guests in an opulent private mansion. In 2004, a boutique spa with two treatment rooms opened next to the hotel's conservatory pool, and a smashing one-bedroom honeymoon suite recently came to life in an 18th-century cottage.</p>

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From Travel + Leisure , MAY 2005

In the fall of 2003, the boutique-hotel chain Red Carnation bought the 18th-century manor house, which dominates an out-of-the-way Dorset village....MORE>>

– Susan Welsh Country Living

Last updated May 2005