• What to know if you go

AMY LAUGHINGHOUSE/Special (ENLARGE)

Littlecote House, a 15th-century Tudor mansion in Berkshire, England, features 180 guest rooms, including a bedroom where Queen Elizabeth I once slept. Most rooms are in an addition that mimics the original mansion.

AMY LAUGHINGHOUSE/Special (ENLARGE)

The Great Hall of Littlecote in Berkshire, England, has played host to many illustrious guests, including Henry VIII, who wooed Jane Seymour (aka wife No. 3) at the estate. Henry's and Jane's coats of arms are depicted in the hallÕs stained-glass windows.

Amy Laughinghouse/Special (ENLARGE)

Snooker, a variety of the game of pool, is a popular pastime among guests at Cricket St. Thomas. The hotel's outdoor activities include archery, croquet and tennis.

Berkshire, England

Outside, a persistent misting rain has cast a bone-chilling gloom upon the darkened fields, where even the sheep must be shivering beneath their woolly hides.

But inside the Great Hall of Littlecote House, a 15th-century Tudor mansion 55 miles from London, giant logs are crackling in a massive fireplace, their warm glow reflected in a glinting suit of armor that stands sentry over this cavernous, wood-paneled hall.

My husband, Scott, and I huddle side by side on one of the long wooden benches flanking the 30-foot-long, 400-year-old table in the center of the room, stretching our legs and warming our hands near the fire. We wonder if Queen Elizabeth I or William of Orange — two of this home's most illustrious guests — may have spent just such a night in this room, or whether Henry VIII, who courted Jane Seymour at Littlecote in the 1500s, might have wooed his beloved here in the flickering shadows.

Once a castle, now a hotel

Littlecote was once owned by Judge John Popham, who presided over the trials of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Today, it is one of six pedigreed British properties converted into hotels by Warner Historic Hotels, which caters to the 50-plus crowd and offers adults-only, four-star accommodations. Littlecote features 180 guest rooms, most of which are in a new addition that has been carefully integrated to mimic the original mansion, although several "royal suites" — including the room Elizabeth I slept in — are in the historic home.

Tonight, with other guests at dinner or in the new cabaret theater, Scott and I have the museum-quality Great Hall, with its ancient oil paintings and armaments, all to ourselves. At least until the lord of the manor, a sleek black cat named Mr. Benson, wanders in, preening and winding about our legs.

After four days traversing England's southwestern countryside, from the Vale of Avalon, home of Arthurian legend, to Stonehenge and the ancient Roman ruins in Bath, this evening's quiet interaction affords us plenty of entertainment. We're content to revel in this home's lengthy history as we marvel at our freedom to wander its public rooms.

We could read quietly together in the light cast by a gilded chandelier in the Chinese Drawing Room, where peacocks strut across 240-year-old hand-painted wallpaper; challenge one another to a game of snooker (a variety of the game of pool) in one of two elegant drawing rooms; or join in a game of bridge in the library, where 180-year-old prints depict life in Littlecote's Great Hall as it was three centuries ago. Then again, we might just retire early to our luxurious four-poster bed.

Roman ruins nearby

During the day, we're also able to explore a half-dozen more rooms, including a chapel converted from the home's original great hall, the "haunted bedroom" (where guests never sleep), a portrait hall also said to be infested by spooks (affording me a good excuse to cling to my husband) and a small museum filled with artifacts excavated from Roman ruins on Littlecote's grounds.

After touring the home, we venture out to stroll hand in hand past Littlecote's walled garden and alongside a scenic stream to the low stone walls that demarcate Roman buildings dating from the first century A.D. One of these ruins, sheltered by an open-air pavilion, boasts a striking tiled floor. It is the renowned Orpheus Mosaic, discovered in 1727 and featuring ancient goddesses astride a panther, bull and goat. A medieval village once stood here, too, but it was swept aside centuries ago so that Henry VIII could use these wooded acres as a hunting ground.

There's a palpable sense of romance at Warner Historic Hotels, which are scattered across England and Wales. In addition to Littlecote, they include Nidd Hall, a baronial treasure dating to the 14th century; Thoresby Hall, an ivy-draped Victorian mansion near Robin Hood's legendary Sherwood Forest; Bodelwyddan Castle, a 19th-century stronghold whose turrets tower over the Welsh Hills; the Holme Lacy House, a 17th-century red brick mansion boasting a lake and tiered gardens; and Cricket St. Thomas, an imposing 18th-century stone manor house 30 minutes from Lyme Regis, the fishing village featured in Meryl Streep's "The French Lieutenant's Woman," about a failed love affair.

Breakfast, dinner included

Warner's inclusive-priced packages offer breakfast and a three-course dinner. All the hotels have modern additions, with up to 214 guest rooms and amenities like a 400-seat cabaret theater, spacious dining room and pub, fitness center with an indoor pool, Jacuzzi and sauna, and beauty rooms where guests can treat themselves to a massage or facial. Activities range from archery and ballroom dance to darts competitions and tai chi. For an extra charge, guests can arrange a hot air balloon ride or horseback rides.

Properties occasionally plan theme weekends, as well, such as "'60s Weekend" or "'70s Weekend," where guests bust a move to tunes from those recent decades.

But confusion can ensue, as we learned from Carol Gallagher, who used to be the duty manager at Cricket St. Thomas in Somerset. "When one lady checked in, she said, 'I wanted to bring my friend with me, and she was so disappointed she couldn't come,'" Gallagher recalls. When the desk clerk asked why not, the lady replied, "Because it's ''70s Weekend,' and she's only 69!"

Gallagher can't suppress a smile. "I hate to think what will happen when we start having ''90s Weekend!'" she says.

Can't decide which properties to visit? Neither can we, so we opt to "bed hop" with a few nights at Littlecote, as well as a couple of nights at Cricket St. Thomas.

Cricket St. Thomas

With its sweeping stone staircase in the grand central hall and acres of misty fields unfurling beyond its imposing walls, Cricket St. Thomas is every inch the archetypal English country home. The estate was first mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, but despite its long history, Cricket St. Thomas is best known as the setting for the 1970s British sitcom "To the Manor Born," about a bankrupt noblewoman who loses her ancestral home to a supermarket mogul.

Every afternoon, an episode is screened in the cabaret theater. Scripts, books about the series and photographs from the set fill the library, where paintings of bewigged gentlemen and slaughtered pheasants look down upon leather club chairs and a stone fireplace large enough for a person to stand upright in. (I must confess, however, that we spend most of our time downing pints in the cozy little pub, located in the former drawing room.)

Despite the home's TV celebrity pedigree, the real stars of the show are the animals in the adjacent 46-acre Wildlife Park, where monkeys, meerkats and 500 other exotic species are essentially allowed to roam free, though fencing separates them from predators and the public. Here, zebras gallop across the rolling hills; delicate, deerlike sitatunga wade into the river on spindly legs; and camels regard visitors with a wary sneer.

The lemurs, by contrast, are impish, big-eyed hams that look like second cousins to the raccoon and can't resist the paparazzi. They play leap-frog with one another, pose atop the information signs that sport their picture and groom themselves in one large hairy mass to prepare for their next close-up.

Later this afternoon, Scott and I will trundle off again to the nearest tourist attractions. For now, though, we'll savor the sight of this verdant river valley, imagining ourselves, for the moment, the lord and lady of the manor.

IF YOU GO

Getting there

Expect to pay at least $600 round trip to London during the off season, much more in summer.

About the hotels

Warner Historic Hotels rates start at 104 pounds, about $205, per person (based on double occupancy), for a two-night midweek break. (That's about $102 per person per night.) Prices include accommodations, breakfast, dinner and leisure and entertainment facilities. Guests must be 21 or older. Tickets for Warner guests who wish to visit the wildlife park cost an additional 6.50 pounds per person or 12 pounds per couple (about $13 and $24).

011-44-870-601-6012, www.warnerbreaks.co.uk.

Information

For free maps, brochures, vacation-planning advice and a variety of passes and transportation tickets, contact Visit Britain, 1-800-462-2748, www.visitbritain.com/usa.