Rabbit Hill may be one of the few inns that actually started as one, and while it has not been reconfigured from an old house, the place has been upgraded in ways important to the romance it engenders: gas fireplaces in the bedrooms and a Jacuzzi tub big enough for two. But no television sets mar the decor of giant four-poster canopied beds and comfortable antique furniture, and why would we want to look at an electronic screen when we can see both Rabbit Hill and Cannon Mountain from our bedroom windows? There isn't even a telephone to jar your senses from the soothing selection of soft, reflective music on the CD player.
The Federal-style, white-columned inn is one of the few buildings in Lower Waterford. The village is so small, Leslie Mulcahy told us, that when one of its matriarchs passed away this summer, a baby was born to take her place within the week, keeping the population at a nice, round 50. Lower Waterford is so small that in 1919, J.W. Davies, a philanthropist who had made his money bringing the process of homogenization to this country from Europe, bought the whole place so he could use every building as houses for his wife and family. Mrs. Davies had all the buildings painted white with dark green shutters, after which everyone called it ''The White Village of Vermont." A most photographed area, with a clapboard Congregational church and an ''honor" library (borrow a book and bring it back whenever you want), it is now a state historic district.
While we were tempted to hang out in the four-poster, or try to put one of the famed Vermont Stave jigsaw puzzles together in the Federal parlor, the late summer weather was too nice for us not to get outside, so the Mulcahys arranged for us to enjoy the steep up-and-down St. Johnsbury Country Club golf course, a 20-minute drive from the inn. There are also seven miles of walking or cross-country ski trails near the inn, and a path between the church and Town Hall (across the street from the inn) leads down to the banks of the Connecticut River, where you can kayak or canoe.
