Morning Tea with Jane Austen - Pump Room, Bath, England

 Arriving in Bath mid morning seemed the perfect time to have morning tea before taking a look around this most elegant of Georgian towns. ( You will find my previous post about Bath by typing Bath into the search box).  I suggested to my traveling companion, Liz, that we head to the Pump Room.  The Pump Room epitomises all that is elegant in Bath and is one of the town's leading tourist attractions.  Unaware that we had needed to book for morning tea we fronted up to the entry only to be stopped by a kindly security guard who negotiated with management to allow us entry.  Fortunately the room was not overly busy so we were admitted.

So elegant. It was busier than this.  This is a photo from the management.

This beautiful room dates back to 1797 and featured in Jane Austen's books, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. It was a highly fashionable meeting place for the monied people of Bath where gossip was shared, relationships were formed and people drank the mineral waters from the natural spring as it was deemed to be good for various ailments, including rheumatism and arthritis. I've been a life long fan of Jane Austen and have read most of her novels more than once.  I love how she was a very astute observer of people and their pretensions and foibles.  Jane wasn't fooled by the airs and graces of the Georgian dandies and their ladies. She describes then well in her novels peppering her stories with her sardonic wit. Although she had visited the Pump Room she was not in the monied class herself, being the daughter of a fairly humble Parson.

 Seated at a table with starched white linen cloths, served by courteous wait staff and listening to gentle music played on a grand piano Liz and I felt transported to the elegance of the Georgian era. It was just lovely.  We thoroughly enjoyed our morning tea and cake and didn't want to leave but we were in Bath  for just a few hours and Liz was booked to visit the Roman Baths next door so leave we must but not  before  I took a draught of the mineral water.  It tasted, well, minerally. 

Liz went off to the Roman Baths, and since I had visited the Baths fairly recently, I set off for a walk around the town, a town I have visited several times but am always delighted to revisit.

I strongly suggest if you want to get a taste of a more elegant, gracious, slower paced time, book morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea at the Pump Room.  It is not inexpensive, we paid 9 pounds 25 for a pot of tea and one slice of cake, but it was so worth it for the ambiance and I would certainly go there again. 

Left:  The famous mineral water pump.  The view from this window is of the Roman Baths which I wrote about in a previous post.

www.thepumproombath.co.uk