Arriving at Heckfield Place is like entering Jane Austen’s world—the Hampshire hotel is a Georgian, Grade II–listed house within a 438-acre estate of manicured loveliness. The drive sweeps through woodland and lawns, and two lakes can be seen from the dramatic entrance hall. The reception rooms have the reassuring scent of log fires and fresh flowers gathered from the gardens.
Heckfield was nine years in the making due to the perfectionist tendencies of its billionaire owner, Dr. Gerald Chan, a venture capitalist whose family donated $350 million to the Harvard School of Public Health (now the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health).
