Rich guests get ultimate pampering in private resort

Dorothy Thompson and Sinclair Lewis bought the property in 1928.
BARNARD, Vt. (AP) -- They paid as much as $2,600 a night to stay at Twin Farms, and if the notes they left in the guest book are any indication, it was worth it.
"Just when I imagine it couldn't be better, you amaze me again," wrote one guest.
"How do you define 'perfection' -- we define it as a stay at Twin Farms," wrote another.
And finally: "Most wonderful place I have ever been."
The resort that inspired these rapturous notices does not offer glitzy entertainment, or gilded bathroom fixtures, or gluttonous buffets. Instead, it is a place where a well-heeled clientele can enjoy ultra-personalized attention, in beautiful and private surroundings -- with a fillip of literary history thrown into the mix.
Guests "feel like this is their home in Vermont," says resident manager Michael Beardsley.
They come for three or four days to wander trails that comb the resort's 300 leafy acres; to fly-fish in its private pond; to ski down its private runs; to get a pedicure at its spa, or soak in 104-degree comfort in its deep Japanese furo baths; to eat gourmet meals, the ingredients drawn from Twin Farms' gardens.
There are just 15 rooms and cottages, housing no more than 30 guests (no kids allowed). A staff of 50 is at their call from the instant they arrive at Twin Farms' unobtrusive gate.
The place has a kind of timeless serenity. There is no indication that it is just 11 years old, the brainchild of Thurston Twigg-Smith, a Hawaiian tycoon with a taste for epicurism and a wallet to match.
The parcel Twigg-Smith bought had a rich history. A dozen miles north of the picturesque village of Woodstock, Twin Farms was a working farm that had been turned to pasture.
History
Then one day in 1928, a couple from New York stopped by, looking for a country house; they fell in love with Twin Farms, so named because there were two farmhouses, and paid $10,000 for it on the spot.
The woman was Dorothy Thompson, who would become one of the best-known women in the world, a European political correspondent and columnist who was the model for Katharine Hepburn's role in the movie "Woman of the Year."
The man was Sinclair Lewis, probably the most successful author of his time -- "Main Street," "Babbitt," "Elmer Gantry" -- and soon-to-be Nobel Prize laureate.
They moved into the larger house. At Lewis' instigation, they connected the adjoining barn and made it into a big common room, with large windows looking out at Mount Ascutney.
They were happy for a time here; Lewis revised "Dodsworth" and wrote portions of "Ann Vickers" at Twin Farms. But theirs was a rocky relationship -- Lewis, a difficult man when sober, was even more difficult on those numerous occasions when he was drunk -- and Thompson and Lewis divorced in 1942, after a five-year separation.
Lewis died in 1951. Thompson owned Twin Farms until her death, 10 years later; she is buried in the Village Cemetery in Barnard.
There is not much left of their lives here. The Barn Room survives, as do Thompson's and Lewis' rooms. The latter is called "Red's Room" -- that was Lewis' hair color, and his nickname -- but the name of the room is not explained to guests. Some years ago, the Lewis family objected to Twin Farms' trading on the writer's name, so the resort's history is never mentioned.
Here's the layout
There are four rooms in the main house, two in the nearby lodge, and nine cottages scattered around the grounds (the second house from Lewis' time burned down years ago). Each has at least one wood-burning fireplace, and each is individually -- and sometimes startlingly -- furnished.
Like the Meadow Cottage -- on the outside, a Vermont clapboard house, on the inside a Moroccan palace with tented ceilings, all for $1,500 a night.
Or the Chalet -- more than 3,000 square feet, two decks, two fireplaces, a screened porch with a granite hot tub, two bathrooms (one with a double soaking tub and the other with a circular shower) and a mixed-media work by artist Joan Snyder entitled "Ode to a Pumpkin Field."
The rent? $2,600 a night.
The Snyder piece is not unusual; Twin Farms is festooned with antiques and pieces from Twigg-Smith's extensive art collection. There are works by Milton Avery, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein; there is American folk art, like the works that decorate George's Room -- a red-white-and-blue tribute to George Washington ($1,100 a night).
There have been improvements made in the 11 years Twin Farms has been open. The resort now closes for the month of April each year -- mudtime in Vermont -- and last year Beardsley added satellite television and T-1 computer connections for each room.
One thing that hasn't changed is the chef. Neil Wigglesworth has been there since day one.
His menus are improvised daily. Before guests arrive, they receive a questionnaire that asks about food allergies, likes and dislikes. The results -- coupled with Wigglesworth's assessment of what is fresh that day, including vegetables and herbs from the Twin Farms gardens -- dictate what will be served.
"He drives to work not knowing what the menu is," Beardsley says.
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