England is one of my favorite countries to visit, London a draw, of course, but the countryside equally alluring with the grand country houses and elaborate gardens.

I highlight one trip to the countryside near Eton in The Sens of Beauty, in which I look back at my design journalism career and celebrate a gorgeous Dorchester Collection property called Coworth Park. I wrote the piece for Interiors Magazine, feeling as if I had been dropped into a Merchant Ivory production at the hotel, Originally built by prosperous East Indian merchant William Shephard in 1776, the Georgian mansion house—which is predated only by the Coworth Park’s Dower House, built in 1775—is the centerpiece of the estate, which passed through the ownership of an extensive list of lords and ladies during the intervening two-plus centuries, a roster that includes the Earl of Derby who owned it during the early half of the 19^th century.

In the mid 1980’s, the estate became a hub for polo when Galen Weston, the owner of Selfridges and Fortnam and Mason, bought it, transforming it into an epicenter for high-goal matches replete with classically designed stables for his pampered ponies. Prince Jefri, the brother of the Sultan of Brunei, purchased the estate in England in 1995 and expanded its presence as a posh polo destination. By the time the Dorchester Collection snapped up the property, the buildings and gardens were far from pristine. “It had, quite literally, fallen to bits,” remarks designer Martin Hulbert of Fox Linton Associates, whose task it was to bring the estate back to life. And so he did: quite gloriously, in fact!