For gathering
In the end, we’ll look back at the pictures we took beside that fire pit, in that treehouse, dancing around that kitchen island, and we’ll say: “look at us, we always filled those big houses to the rafters.”
Welcome to the family reunion: where kith and kin gather in large houses around the nation. Out on the wind-whipped balcony, an imaginative elder points out to sea and tells concocted stories of fisticuffs with sharks and trading treasures with the Pirates of Penzance. Inside, there’s fresh coffee and sweet apples from the orchard; and fair isle socks muffle the thuds of young ones testing their pillow obstacle course.
This winter is for coming together in luxury, for dogs dodging tumbling stacks of Jenga, for floating in and out of slumber as the stardust-souled play a motion picture, and the whole group gathers in the fire-warmed snug. Tables piled high with crackers and trailing grapes. Cheese boards and nut bowls and jars of fruit chutney; no space left for elbows. Carafes slosh with plummy Malbecs until the last drop is poured, well into the small hours.
Nocturne
Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, The Cotswolds, UK
A period home with a movie room and hot tub in Stow-on-the-Wold, Nocturne is a tincture for the kinetic whirl of city life, a luxury Cotswolds townhouse with a story to tell.
Sleeps: Up to 12 guests
Alternative Group Option: Up to 8 guests
From: £4,250 per week, £2,495 per short break
Pets: Three well-behaved dogs are welcome
Features: William Holland hot tub, cinema room, games room
Saxon
Maugersbury, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, The Cotswolds, UK
Over a thousand years of history have unfolded between the walls of this elegant manor. Today, Saxon offers a serene escape near Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds.
Sleeps: Up to 12 guests
From: £5,795 per week, £4,595 per short break
Pets: One small to medium dog is welcome
Features: Hot tub, cinema snug with projector and games room
