Sometimes travel is like time travel. One spot that recently allowed me to inhabit a long-vanished era was Prestonfield House, an extraordinarily lavish boutique property housed within a late-17th-century mansion, situated 3 miles southeast of Edinburgh’s city center. Set in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat, the extinct 800-foot volcano whose imposing bulk looms over the city, Prestonfield was converted to a 23-room hotel in the 1960s and is now owned by well-known local restaurateur James Thomson.