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| There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea. Ralph Waldo Emerson |
Betty's, Northallerton - Sunday 18th August 2013
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Tea Takers
Sarah Ryan
Paul Ryan
Olivia Ryan
Lucy Matheson
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An impromptu tea on a pleasingly impromptu day. We read in the newsletter at St Wilfrid's this morning that today there was to be the annual pilgrimage to the Middlesborough Diocesan shrine of Our Lady at Mount Grace, Osmotherly. After summer visits to Lourdes and Walsingham it seemed only appropriate to take the opportunity to visit our most local Marian shrine. Our weekend guest, Lucy, was, fortunately, easily persuaded of the virtues of such an outing, and so we made out way up the A19 and to the lovely chapel, high on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors, with its stunning views across the Vale of Mowbray to the Pennines. Mass there was wonderful and it was very good to catch up with some Ampleforth brethren.
We subsequently made our way down to Northallerton in the vague hope that there might be the possibility of a cup of tea. The typical broad high street of the country market town was well supplied with shops, and to our great delight this included a branch of Betty's, which was still open at the tail end of a Sunday afternoon.
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I have written about Betty's elsewhere in this blog (Tea the Eleventh) and, given the consistent high standards and congeniality of this splendid Yorkshire institution, other establishments will almost certainly feature in the odyssey. Northallerton did not disappoint. Whilst not quite the extraordinary Art Deco extravaganza of central York, it is located in a pleasing substantial, traditional building which has been sympathetically extended into a bright and most attractive tea room at the back. The menu is extremely varied and very enticing (only fruit scones though... tsk). Lucy and Olivia opted for warming toasted goods (Cinnamon toast and toasted muffin, respectively) whilst Paul and I partly solved the difficulties of choice by choosing two cakes to share.
Everything was beautifully prepared and presented. Paul has declared the strawberry cheese-cake the best he has ever tasted, and the strawberry meringue was both elegant and delicious. Service was very friendly and efficient, and whilst the milk jugs might have been just a little on the small size, they were swiftly and cheerfully filled at our lightest whim.
Lucy finally overcame her Betty's jinx - she has been thwarted at attempts to visit all of their tea rooms, and so this was quite momentous. Here we have photographic evidence of her taking photographic evidence of finally achieving this.
The location provided something for everyone, and Olivia found a suitably edifying item among the newspapers to which she gave serious attention.
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Twenty-First Tea - Twenty-First Year
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Our Lady of Mount Grace
The Chapel of Our Lady, Mother of Divine Grace, is on a site to which pilgrims have travelled for over six hundred years. Originally a chapel built by the the Carthusians of Mount Grace Priory in the valley below (dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and St Nicholas), and for many years a hermitage, it remained a place of pilgrimage even in the midst of the religious persecutions of the Tudor period. Ironically it fell into neglect and disrepair after the emancipation of Catholics in this country, but was rediscovered and rebuilt in the twentieth Century. The annual Middlesborough Diocesan pilgrimage to celebrate the Assumption began in 1958, and is a very special event in this historic place.
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A wonderful summer afternoon, ending in a splendid tea - what could be better?
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