Ardenlee house, Ballarat review: Matters of the hearth

Patricia Maunder finds a comfortable chair by the fire at an 1860s bed and breakfast.

Ballarat is full of 19th-century history and charm, so 1860s Ardenlee seems a fine place to get away from modern life's stresses.

My first impression of the two-storey classic Victorian house with a high-pitched roof and pretty front garden full of pansies and roses is one of old-fashioned tranquillity, despite its location on the main road leading to the city centre. Once inside, I never notice the traffic.

Autumn's late-afternoon chill is setting in, so the gas fireplace in the lounge room, just inside the entrance, is welcome - as is smiling host Marian Moffett.

I want to slip right into one of the enormous armchairs next to those leaping flames but first things first: the luggage needs to be carried upstairs to our room.

We pay $10 extra for the Wexford room - the largest of Ardenlee's three bedrooms - and, upon seeing it, feel the extra was well worth it. Here, as elsewhere, the Victorian-era architecture is on show, polished and offset with period-inspired colours, fabrics, fittings and reproduction furniture, plus a genuine antique chaise lounge, with a throw elegantly draped across it.

Eager expectations of drifting back in time next to the (gas) fireplace are dashed by a note asking us not to light it (it appears to be broken). An unobtrusive 21st-century heater keeps things warm, however. There is also a wall-mounted television. But it's the spacious bathroom, with its double vanity and bath-style spa (including headrest) that speaks most potently of modern comforts - beautifully dressed up in heritage reproduction tiles, brass fittings and polished wood.

Back in the main room, the queen-size bed piled with pillows looks awfully comfortable but that fireplace downstairs is calling.

Moffett earlier pointed out the dining room's tea- and coffee-making facilities and a covered glass stand housing her home-made muffins. With a hot cuppa and treat in hand, I sink into one of those armchairs by the fire.