“Finding ourselves in an increasingly fast-paced world, we like to think of The Newt as a refuge from the hustle and bustle of daily life—a place to reconnect with nature and yourself and reap the rewards of slowing down,” says Antonella Bonettie, head of experience at The Newt, listing cold dips, woodland walks, and bee safaris at its Beezantium as some of the many ways guests can reconnect with nature on the property. Full of discovery and ever-evolving, one of the estate’s latest and most celebrated attractions is its Villa Ventorum exhibit, an immersive recreation of a 2,000-year-old Roman house that allows you to experience the sights, sounds, and scents of a 4th-century Romano-British household.
It can’t be said enough, though; nothing defines your time at The Newt like the season you are visiting. “What most sharply distinguishes farming life from the city is the rhythm of the seasons,” says Roos. “In town, one only changes a few layers of clothes. In the countryside, each season is fundamentally, deeply different from any other in its rituals, colors, smells, flavors.” This is felt most deeply in the expansive, fairytale-worthy formal gardens designed by Italian-French architect and landscape designer Patrice Taravella. They are a revelation in both beauty and function, from the apple tree-lined parabola plotted in a Baroque-style maze to the ample kitchen garden, brimming with over 350 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, used in all of The Newt’s farm-to-fork offerings, from the plant-led Garden Cafe and hearty, wood-fired Farmyard Kitchen to the more formal Botanical Room for elegant seasonal dining.