We Had Tea At This Bristol Mansion And It Was Marvelous

Pinkies Up For Tea At This Gorgeous Manse With Incredible Gardens

Tea & Scones at Blithewold is back this year (it runs through October) and tickets are selling like hot cakes!

Sure, you could go in October, but quite honestly, walking the 7 award winning gardens (singled out by Yankee Magazine as some of the Best Public Gardens in New England) there during the summer is such a treat.

I mean, the Rose Garden alone can be traced back to 1900 and includes a particular one that many historians believe could have originated at Mount Vernon, GW’s Virginia estate that has bragging rights as “the most visited” property of its kind in the continental US.

It’s all very Jane Austen meets Kathryn Bradley Hole, an author of an important book about English gardens and gardening.

In addition to the traditional high tea menu (a pot, scones with jam and clotted cream, and a sweet) served either on the porch overlooking The Bay or in one of the first floor rooms inside the manor house (which is Blithewold 2 because the original burnt down in 1906 and was subsequently rebuilt), you can actually order iced tea which is probably not the way it rolls at Balmoral, Clarence House or Kensington Palace but whatevs.

Frankly it’s the closest I’ve gotten to an English countryside experience ever. (For the record, even though the editors at Graydon Carter’s Airmail have said The Cotswolds is so five years ago, it remains on my travel wish list.)

And don’t leave without getting your photo snapped near the Moon Gate (1 of only 2 or 3 that I’ve been able to locate in Rhode Island).

Or popping in to the gift shop that’s stocked with tons of tempting things.

To try your luck at getting a table for you and your inner circle, go to their site.

As always, if you go after reading this, please let them know you were inspired by Patty J and PatttyJ.com.