Tea the Twenty-First

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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Tea the Twentieth

You have arrived at a propitious moment, coincident with 

your country's one indisputable contribution to 

Western civilisation - afternoon tea.

Hugo Drax - villain of the film 'Moonraker'

Saturday, 17th August 2013 - Mulberry Hall, Stonegate, York

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

David Bednall

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Today marks half way towards the 21st anniversary of the London congestion charge, and also to the birth of Olivia. A good day for the half way tea, then. After some very entertaining summer travels, also a very pleasing opportunity to enjoy some end of holiday time in York.

Mulberry Hall is essentially a china shop, situated in Stonegate one of York's older and most picturesque thoroughfares - it sells much more that that though, crystal, silver, cookware, jewellery - many lovely (and, correspondingly, expensive) things, (alongside many more dubious (and, disappointingly, expensive) things). The building is typical of its 15th century origins and is attractively higgledy-piggledy, both inside and out.

If you can make your way up one of the narrow winding staircases, and through the assault course of sloping floors and (very) low beams without toppling any of the multitudinous displays of fragile and pricey goods, you will find the cafe.  This has been in situ for many years and was a place that I came as a child and teenager with family and friends, and of which I have very fond memories.  

The nature of the shop being as it is, the china here has always been rather finer than that of the average cafe, and the current silver stripy affairs are very pleasing, not to mention the very satisfying teapots.

It was very fine to share this tea with Dave Bednall, an old friend from Sherborne, who was serendipitously involved in the RSCM summer school here this week. In his entertaining company we reminisced about choir tours and concerts past, caught up on news of mutual acquaintances and reflected upon the genius of Alan Partridge.  He is a very talented organist, and increasingly emminent composer, but of far more cachet to Olivia, the son of Mrs Bednall, one of her first piano teachers.

The menu offered many pleasing items - and whilst there was only 'cream tea' rather than full afternoon tea, there was easy opportunity to augment with sandwiches/cakes/baked goods of your choice. Olivia and I took advantage of this to incorporate toast and muffins which we particularly enjoy as a tea element.

(No prize for identifying which school name Paul was saying as this photograph was taken...)

The lack of clotted cream was the most serious weaknesses of the repast, and the scones, whilst pleasant, might have been a little lighter, but, that said, it was most commendable and in a very congenial setting.

Dave's inimitable assessment of the occasion as 'richly jocund' seems only fitting.

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Twentieth Tea - Twentieth Year

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York

We bought our house in York in August 2009 - a step on the housing ladder and the opportunity to have a bolt hole away from boarding school life. It was one of our better ideas and both the house and the city have both become a much loved home despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that we cannot be here all the time.

York is beautiful and historic, a city large enough for an interesting and varied culture, but small enough to walk around and feel comfortably familiar very quickly.  It is a wonderful place to visit, to live in and to think longingly about when you are deep in the middle of another fraught term in the South East.

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Tea the Nineteenth

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? 

How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.

Sydney Smith

The Randolph Hotel, Beaumont Street, Oxford - Sunday 3rd August 2013

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

Nicola Thomas

Martin Rist

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The very fine celebrations of the Broome Saunders' birthdays brought us to Oxford, and provided the opportunity for another Oxford tea.  It was inevitable that The Randolph should feature in the odyssey at some point (and, yes, I know some hotel chain think that just because they own it they can change its name to incorporate theirs, but I refuse to give in to the barbarians) and it was a very civilised setting for a lazy Sunday afternoon. 

'The' grand hotel of central Oxford, situated opposite the Ashmolean Museum in the centre of this most beautiful city, it has long represented elegance and style. We came here today with our friends Nicola and Martin - who are always civilised and stylish, and therefore exceptionally appropriate. Nicola and I met as undergraduates at Oxford, and indeed we came to The Randolph (with Lucy and Sophie), on 8th February 1994, to have breakfast here to celebrate my 21st birthday, so it was only poetic justice to drag her back again.

Tea was served in the drawing room - a high ceilinged, typically elegant affair looking out over the Ashmolean.  The walls are arrayed with Osbert Lancaster's paintings illustrating Zuleika Dobson, and the room is tasteful and reposeful, with its well-stuffed armchairs and sofas in autumnal shades of sage green and burnt orange, around the impeccable white linen on the low tables.  All very pleasant.

There were a couple of initial qualms, however. The china was a little chunky, perhaps rather too 'catering' for our (now very exacting) taste, and whilst offering an alternative to sugar may be thoughtful, there is really no excuse for paper sachets of proprietary sweeteners to surround the sugar bowl. It also rather concerned us when the waitress, from whom we had ordered a drink of water for Olivia, asked me if we wanted more than one 'tub'. Fortunately when it arrived in was in glass rather than Tupperware.

These quibbles apart, it swiftly became a very high calibre experience.  The service was discreetly attentive and the the tea itself was very well supplied.

I consider wonkiness of the cake stands to be a rather attractive suggestion of frequent use. 

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The tea was very generous, beautifully presented and most delicious.

We all rated the scones very highly.  They were clearly very freshly baked and were beautifully light. Martin commented on the very fine contrast between their slightly crunchy crust and the very pleasing softness within - or as he philosophically put it - they were 'an armadillo rather than a Dime bar'. The option of lemon curd, as well as the traditional strawberry jam, was also a successful addition to the tea table.

The selection of cakes were especially pleasing: perfect Opera cakes, little subtly flavoured Mango layered sponges, fruit cake, a raspberry pannacotta, and, my personal favourite, fabulous miniature lemon meringue tartlets, with crisp pastry, smooth Italian meringue and a beautiful fresh lemon filing.

Olivia was not entirely enamoured of her chocolate brownie (her purist soul afflicted by the caramel drizzle and the addition of ice-cream), but fortunately Paul and Martin were able, manfully, to finish it for her.

Add to this, a good choice of sandwiches and a plentiful supply of tea, and The Randolph more than held its own very well in the provisions stakes.

Nicola, sadly, did bring shame on her family by forgetting to use her tea strainer, and having to do some reparatory fishing...

On the other hand, in her defence, the tea strainers were rather utilitarian stainless steel 1970s numbers, and not particularly pleasing. Another area for development...

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Built in 1864, named because of its proximity to the, then new, Randolph Gallery in the Ashmolean, The Randolph is one of Oxford's fine Gothic revival buildings.  This had been a matter of some debate, as the City Council had wanted a Classical design to blend with the Regency styling of the rest of Beaumont Street.  The Gothic design was therefore kept relatively simple and is similar to the Oxford University Museum and Oxford Union Building. It is not surprising to discover that its architect, William Wilkinson, also designed many houses in the north of the city, and the arched windows seem a very Oxford idiom.

Inside any restraint in the styling was dropped - Gothic doorways, painted wood work, designs on the carpet - if you like it (as I really do) it's quite fabulous.  Even the hand dryers in the Ladies are in their own splendid Gothic recesses.

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Nineteenth Tea - Nineteenth Year

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A most enjoyable tea, with delightful company, in a setting that I would like to inhabit more often.

Nicola examines her options

Olivia ensures that none of the decorative icing sugar goes to waste

Martin delicately enjoys a scone/armadillo

Paul, less delicately, consumes a sandwich

Sarah peers, with trepidation, around a cake stand

To give The Randolph all the credit that it is due, we must also report that when the bill arrived they had undercharged to the tune of one tea.  When Paul raised this with them, they insisted that this was the bill they had given us and therefore that was what we should pay - very gentlemanly - bravo.

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