Let them eat cake

Cliveden sits on a hill above the River Thames near Taplow.  Home for many years to the great and the good and latterly the site of events leading to the Profumo affair, the house is imposing, almost intimidating.  The last private owners, the Astors, gifted the estate to the National Trust. Today, the house is run as a hotel.

Mrs IS’s recent birthday produced an excellent present from her book club friends in the form of afternoon tea at the hotel. Today was the day chosen for the repast. We arrived early and built up an appetite walking the large park, which was fortuitous as the tea offered would have fed much of the county of Buckinghamshire. In the end, we needed a doggy bag for some of the cakes. We are unlikely to go hungry in the next couple of days.

It was a grey day and raining steadily on the way home.  It was a good trip out though. Mrs IS, an afternoon tea aficionado, thought the Cliveden version to be up there with the best.