Time For Tea: March 2013

The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured cosiness.

P. G. Wodehouse - The Code of the Woosters

Middlethorpe Hall Hotel, York - Tuesday, 26th March 2013

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

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Middlethorpe Hall is a beautiful William and Mary red brick and stone house begun in 1699 for Thomas Barlow, a prosperous master cutler from Sheffield. The Hotel's own potted history takes pride in its symmetry, but what about those chimneys, eh?

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In 1712 Barlow, with his son Francis, set off on the grand tour, letting the house to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the noted traveller, diarist and poet.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Lady Mary lived in the house during the early years of her marriage to Edward Wortley Montagu. She had eloped with him in 1712, to avoid marrying her father's choice of husband for her, one Clotworthy Skeffington. (Now who wouldn't want to marry someone called Clotworthy?)

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In later years the house was put to a variety of uses. From 1851, for thirty years, it housed a girls' boarding school, and more recently, in 1972, it was briefly 'Brummels' night club. Fortunately for all concerned in 1980 it was acquired by Historic House Hotels and the house and grounds were restored. In 2008 it became, with the other two HHH establishments, the property of the National Trust.

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It is a very pleasing place to take tea and the ambience of the country house drawing room is delightful. Having spent this morning listening to Jeremy Sinden's reading of Galahad at Blandings, it felt that at any moment Galahad Threepwood himself would appear, monocle gleaming, to be met with icy disapproval by Lady Hermione Wedge, or any other of his sisters, and it was really quite disappointing that the (actually very polite and helpful) young gentleman who showed us to our table and took our order, had neither the gravity nor girth of Beech.

Lord Emsworth considers the situation...

Tea was as well presented and varied as those encountered elsewhere.

However, in some respects, it did fall short of our increasingly exacting standards. This has been the first tea venue to make the fundamental error of serving only fruit scones - Olivia's judgement (with which I sympthise): 'appalling' - but as a compensation they did provide us with some fine toast which was most enjoyable. The scones themselves were not of the highest calibre either; over-cooked and rather dry - I don't think Mary Berry would have been happy. The other offerings were more successful - a nice madeira cake, small lemon possets, macarons and tiny eclairs.

In the end the overall experience did compensate for the shortcomings of the tea and it was a very splendid place with very friendly and discreet service, which is a balance that other places have not managed. I would definitely go back but might order tea and toast rather than the formal tea menu.

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Remembrance of Benefactors

Whilst Middlethorpe Hall is a mere three and a half miles from our house in York, we were in fact introduced to it via Melbourne, Australia. The fabulios (sic) Kate Taylor, who is both very generous and imaginatively resourceful bought afternoon tea for us here for my 39th birthday. Kate will be featuring again in this odyssey, despite the fact that her inconvenient decision to live some ten thousand miles away means she may not be able to attend an event in person. Watch out for The Savoy, very soon.

We had afternoon tea on the day this was taken in 2000.
Something else might have been going on too.

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Sixth tea - Sixth Year

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Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than
the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady

The Old Parsonage Hotel, Oxford - Saturday, 23rd March 2013

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

Clare Broome Saunders

John Broome Saunders

Hope Broome Saunders

Thea Broome Saunders

Verity Broome Saunders

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The First Oxford Tea

Given the importance of Oxford in our lives there may need to be several odyssey stages here, but it was especially delightful to have the first one in the company of the Broome Saunders family and at the beautiful Old Parsonage on Banbury Road.

An utterly charming 17th Century house, built from the same mellow Headington stone used in so many of Oxford's Colleges, with its oak front door, the original that has hung there for over 300 years, the Old Parsonage is an irresistible location for a Properly English and Properly Oxford afternoon tea.

Built on the site of a medieval priest's dwelling and hospice, next to the ancient church of St Giles, the original parts of the house were built by Edward Selwood, a chef of St John's College, on land owned by University College, to which institution ground rent is still paid.

Selwood built the house as a guesthouse, and it has been run as such or let as lodgings by most of its subsequent owners. It has been the lodging for many interesting Oxford characters including a master in Chancery to Edward IV, two Mayors of Oxford, a wig-maker, a sculptor, students, maltsters and chefs, and also, it is believed, Oscar Wilde, who may have rented rooms here when suspended from Magdalen.

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The Pike Room

When I rang to book for such a sizeable party I was asked if we would mind having a private dining room, as the restaurant was quite busy. It seemed that we would probably manage with our own wood-panelled room, with beautiful stone fireplace, that was filled with books.

The only mildly off-putting problem with 'The Pike Room' was that it is named for the interesting decorative feature of the large stuffed pike above the mantelpiece (accompanied by some smaller piscine trophies for company). Still, it added its own unique colour to the occasion.

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Tea was delightful, with fine sandwiches, elegant cakes and delicious light scones. It was particularly pleasing to see how very generous they were with the provision of clotted cream and jam. The jam itself also smelt fabulous and added much to the general harmoniousness of the table.

Pleasing also to incur the need for two cake stands, especially when they had clawed feet.

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Sites of Historical Significance on Banbury Road

In my third year at Oxford I lived in a college house at 59 Banbury Road, and so I walked passed The Old Parsonage on very many occasions on my way in and out of town. My room was the top left window in this picture, in the gable front (and had interestingly sloping ceilings).

My then newly-acquired, and correspondingly gallant, young gentleman would always walk me home after evenings together, despite his living on the other side of the town centre. It became our habit to pause to kiss under a particular tree that stands in the churchyard of St Giles's and next to The Old Parsonage. It only seemed appropriate, therefore, eighteen years on...

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Daughters of Decadence

In the days our youth, Clare and I, whilst working on Saturdays in Waterstone's, were delighted by the title of a book that we found there. It inspired us to establish our own private society 'The Daughters of Decadence,' with our motto 'nil sine elegantia', taking the appropriate alter ego names of Hermione and Isobelle. We have attempted to maintain our standards despite everything.

Daughters of Decadence

Grand-daughters of Decadence

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Fifth Tea - Fifth Year

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Chaps and Maths

Talking maths...

...to the extent of needing to draw diagrams on the napkin.

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John claimed not to see it, but the rest of us found it very extraordinary that they appeared to have his portrait on the wall right by the door to our room.

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Lovely to have tea with my very charming god-daughter, Hope. Having 'bagged' four other god-children together at the last event this now means only one to go. Herbie - you have been warned.