Time For Tea: Tea the Sixth

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

___________________

Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

___________________

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?

__________________

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?)

__________________

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.

____________________

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.

_____________________

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.