
Imagine sitting in a horse-drawn carriage, listening to the steady balanced clop of the horses’ hooves as you turn into the entrance to the Park at Highclere. The carriage, jogging along through a mass of dark green rhododendrons that effectively hems in any view, suddenly rounds a bend in the drive to catch sight of a much wider landscape of distant follies, wood studded hills and grazing sheep. After a few minutes, it might be possible to glimpse the sharply drawn silhouette of the Castle tower and the edge of the roof spires.
One hundred and fifty years ago, Highclere’s Park led guests into a world apart and in the same way, today, I hope it is an Arcadian setting and journey to a spectacular home, one that offers time, space and peace to let visitors rest, look, listen and enjoy.
One of the many authors who have stayed at Highclere was Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, the author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. This book was an immediate success and remains much loved. It worked on various levels, both as a children’s story and a political commentary on his time. Political challenges still disturb our material and emotional equilibrium, now as then. Pondering this as I travelled home by train a few days ago and, with many apologies to Lewis Carroll, I wrote about afternoon tea:
“A long white clothed table was set for tea under an ancient tree in the midst of the old lands. Every guest had a chair of a different size according to age. The March Hare sat at the top, which could be the bottom, where he could be mad as a March hare. There were bundles of herbs and flowers in vases and white napkins on pretty china, huge silver and china teapots and a large feast of cakes, sandwiches and scones with all with different sorts of jam.
Alice arrived late because she had said she did not want her invitation, and therefore did not read it. The March Hare shook his long grey ears and his whiskers and grumbled “what did your parents teach you? That is not the way to deal with an invitation”. Alice sat down and then tried to cheer everyone up: “I know a good game, which some of my family like to play. It’s called musical chairs”. She smiled happily and stood up and took her own chair away first, so that when the music never started, and therefore could not stop, Alice had no chair. The Mad Hatter, March Hare, Dormouse and Caterpillar ignored her and carried on talking.

Photo thank you David Griffen
Standing alone, she told the March Hare and all his friends that their conduct was uncivil. He had just tasted a mouthful of the softest sponge cake “Delicious!” he said and added that it had been uncivil of her not to answer. “But I am here now and I think tea and sandwiches, cake and jam are very important to the afternoon, and to me,” said Alice leaning back by the tree. “I like sharing them so why can’t I have tea with you?”
“Only people who sit down can have tea” said the Hatter. “Before you began to arrive late, you made excellent scones which we all shared, in our gardens and our sunshine. We shared our friends and we shared our formulas and recipes,which helped make friends”
“Friends aren’t from formulas” said Alice, “they are much more than numbers!”
The Mad Hatter replied “ they are imaginary and irrational just like numbers. No question. If you try to lead life without any numbers, you have a conundrum!” Alice asked what a conundrum was. The Dormouse suddenly woke up “It is all about drums and loud noises and cons who can’t add” before he fell asleep again, his head on his sandwiches.
Alice said “I don’t understand, you are talking in riddles. Mad Hatter, please may I see what is in your hat? I can see long soft ears. Is that a White Rabbit in your hat ?” The Mad Hatter looked up and then looked down at his cake. “My Hat”. Alice was not sure what to do.
The Tea party sat in silence until the time for March because time had gone missing.
How lovely and timely! I just had a Mad Hatter Tea Party for my four little granddaughters. They each dressed as Alice and we went through a bamboo “rabbit hole” and ended with the Tea Party. I enjoy your blogs.
How charming they must have looked!
Thank you so very much Lady Carnarvon! Mondays are bright and gay now with your lovely blog!
I just love your Blog. I look forward to every Monday.
Jenny Modave
Thank you
You are kind.
What a splendid story! I’m sure Lewis Caroll would be proud.
Thank you
On a snowy Michigan morning, I sit, coffee in hand, feeling the warmth of the sunshine on that long table filled with beautiful little sandwiches, scones, and biscuits. I shall keep that glow with me, as I head out into the sub-freezing morning air to tackle the snow. For that I thank you, dear Lady Carnarvon.
We were very lucky with the weather last Summer and were able to have a number of al fresco afternoon teas.
Delightful! This took me back in time to Alice’s tea party!
Good morning Lady Carnarvon
Always a pleasure to read your post, a slice of sunshine in this snowy morning here in Québec. While I am enjoying a nice cup of tea… Have a nice day!
Thank you
I have a bit of an obsession with the Victoria sponge & that is a very yummy looking one!! Is it made with jam from the estate? When I visited Highclere Castle several years ago I got some plum jam in the gift shop and it was amazing.
As much as possible we use our own preserves and honey.
Thank you for letting me know the name of it!! (Victoria Sponge.) I shall make some!
It is in my At Home book – might yet do a video
Enjoyed this immensely ! How miraculous to have tea at Highclere!
Another beautiful Monday morning blog to start the week off great. You have no idea how you have helped me many difficult Monday mornings. Life can be overwhelming sometimes but looking at your beautiful pictures and where you live and the Beautiful experiences you have had and continue to have are truly something to be grateful for.
You are very kind. I’m so glad my blog has helped you, I am very fortunate to live at Highclere and enjoy sharing its beauty with you.
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Another wonderful blog, and amazing photo’s of delightful sandwiches and cream cakes, I’m off now to make a cuppa.
Best wishes
Lorraine.xx
It is such a pleasure to read your very interesting blogs on Mondays. I look forward to them always.
Thank you
Nothing better than a cuppa..
A wonderful mid-winter sunshine day here, and I am on the balcony with tea and biscuits reading this wonderful tale that you wrote. You make starting the week on moody-Mondays a joy! Definitely imagining to be at Highclere for a yummy Mad Hatter Tea, Charles Dodgson would be proud of your fun story of Alice and musical chairs…many thanks for this blog!
I do not think politics were easy then but feel vulnerable today! Your balcony sounds pretty good!
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Thank-you for your delightful and interesting blog. I love Mondays knowing a new story will appear. Your husband, The Earl must thank his lucky stars for the day you walked into his life! Your contributions and loving care of Highclere are priceless.
Kindest regards,
MaryAnn Rice
Ohio, USA
Today February 18th is our wedding anniversary and I feel blessed
Happy Anniversary to you both!
Thank you so much
Good morning from across the (very cold) Pond,
Thank you, Lady Carnarvon, for your wonderful stories from Highclere, and thank you especially for posting them on Monday morning. The very best way to start my week.
If there was a horse and carriage available for hire in Newbury, I think I would splurge in May – just so I could have the perfect arrival for my first-ever visit to Highclere. Back to the hotel in a taxi is fine…but that first glimpse? THAT would be a perfect Mother’s Day!
I love reading your blog – thank you for this lovely start to my week.
Joan in St. Louis, MO
USA
I have been wondering whether to rent a horse and carriage for the costumes and cocktails event in September – if everyone is dressed up what fun!
Inspirational…..to say the least. I’m quite skilled at saying the least and, not in the least, acting quite mad. Not angry, just nutty. Which makes me think of the squirrels that abound in my garden. Perhaps I’ll go out and bound with them. The robins are busy courting, the squirrels are busy counting and I’m busy babbling. Remembering treacle scones with clotted cream. Oh, to be in England when the March Hares do their thing. Thank you so much.
Thank you!!!
On April 12th of last year, my daughter and I walked up the road surrounded in fog to Highclere. What a wonderful walk seeing the fields, sheep and hearing the birds, when all of a sudden we saw the silouette of the castle!!! Magical !!!
It is always magical. I reach the crossroads and wonder which road I should take- then pull over to have a chat with Paul Mac by the tree. The cedar tree becomes our office and it is amazing how many others stop and join us
Thank you so much for the beautiful pictures, and your wonderful take on Alice in wonderland. It happens this morning I’m having a tea for some neighbors. Cookies, little cupcakes, and cream scones with jam and clotted cream. The two teas I’m serving are, “Paris” and a peach flavored black.
Excellent -lots of jam!!!
Thank you for sharing your world. I saw a special on your home last night. I think it is wonderful you and your husband are working to preserve the castle, and all that goes with it. I especially loved the story of Lady Carnarvon during WW I. What a special person to open her home to those soldiers. I look forward to visiting the next time I visit England.
If you have not read “Lady Almina” please have a look – I feel it is her legacy and you might enjoy it
A really wonderful blog, thank you Lady Carnarvon! Afternoon tea enjoyed al fresco has to be one of my most favourite spring/summer pastimes – it definitely seems to taste better outdoors in the fresh air, than indoors! Hopefully spring will be arriving soon! Hope all is well with you.
Amy Francis
Thank you yes – busy and good!
As I read this, it occurs to me that the Rabbit Hole is behind Jackdaw’s castle, and the Mad Hatter and his entourage had quite a hop to the scrumptiously set tea table under the ancient tree! How dare Alice show up late when all she had to do was descend the Grand staircase. Refuse an invitation to afternoon tea? Off with her chair!
Exactly -always better to reply!!!
“Tea in the garden” wa such a treat when I was growing up in my parent’s lovely garden. Perhaps it was so memorable because lovely summer days were so rare. Your lovely story (and delicious pictures ) brought back those memories. I imagine that I can actually taste the sponge cake.. but that is through the Looking Glass of time . Thank you for a lovely blog.
Amazing photo isn’t it? Yummy!!
What a wonderful blog. Thank you for sharing your home with us.
Katherine
Thank you
This takes me back to a beloved book, in a different time and place. I had my first scone in San Francisco quite a while ago, thank you for the remembrance.
I love it! We are having our own “little” tea party here with my Crazy 8’s who are my forever friends, never numbers. I’m so excited to come to Highclere this summer! Love your blog today – we are able to walk today in the sun – yesterday was hailstorms! and we had an earthquake at 1:55 AM! Quite the wake up in the middle of the night!!! Your much needed words lifted my spirits – keep them coming…
Greetings from Fort Worth, Texas! As a child, I would gather my stuffed animals and favorite doll and arrange them around my little table that, alas, only had two chairs. Not wanting any hurt feelings, I would rotate them according to their good behavior. Mother would bake fold-over apple pies and prepare hot cocoa. I soon became rather bored since no one at my pie and cocoa party would answer my questions and never entered into discussion with me. My very own Cheshire cat would often attend (and sit in the middle of the table). But I decided not to share my feelings about this so that Mother would still bake those exquisite pies. Also, my party guests were instructed to call me Alice. Such treasured memories.
Hello Alice!!!
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Thank you, I love Alice in wonderland! I should buy another copy (mine disapeared probably in a garage sale) and read it again! (c :
Salutations!
Chantal
How delightful, charming and summoning me to tea. My “hats off” to you for reminding me of my childhood readings and wistfully wondering where Alice is now.
Paula
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
My DAR Chapter had a Mad Hatter’s Christmas Party in December. It was great fun. I made my Hat with bright red ostrich feathers and tiny little LED lights. But sadly, there were no Scones or Clotted Cream…Americans!!! That is the best part of having tea!
Thank you for making my Monday a bit brighter with your lovely blog…I agree, tea at Highclere sounds as much like a fairy tale as the adventures of Alice!
Many good wishes to you
Lady Carnarvon,
What a wonderful blog and with beautiful pictures. I enjoyed it immensely! You can almost taste the scones and sandwiches
Thank You,
Phyllis Simpson, USA
Another great Blog for a dreary Monday in the eastern US. Thank you Lady C. for uplifting the day with the delightful Tea Party.
Many Thanks,
Maggie
What a beautiful tea setting and sweets and treats! It looks heavenly! I love Alice in Wonderland and I love this story. So absurd to me too to think Alice took her chair away and no one did anything or no music started playing. Haha. I love reading your blog. We are traveling on the road right now and it’s a good distraction from the road.
God bless
Sarah Cameron
Virginia, USA
Politics in the UK seems absurd
Having tea while catching up on the news of the day — your blog was a soothing way to start.
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Greetings from South Carolina. Still time. Happy Anniversary. And, of course, thanks so much for the blog. It’s a lovely bit of sunshine and brightness on what might be a wintry day.
Freddy
Thank you!
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Very creative, amusing and a jolly good read. Is that the genesis of a third adventure for Alice?
I am sure that all readers of this blog would enjoy another instalment -especially if set against the magical backdrop of Highclere.
I certainly would like to read more of “Haigha” and “Hatta”. However maybe that should wait until May, when, as mused by Alice, “the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won’t be raving mad – at least not so mad as it was in March.”
By the way, I have read that even as a child, Charles Dodgson had a great interest in the railways and invented railway games using the timetables. So I find it most interesting that you wrote the above whilst travelling by train.
Anyway, to borrow from Dodgson/Carroll:
“The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings.”
So on that note, I’ll take my leave
And return to things mundane.
But in just one week, I’ll be back
To read your sweet refrain.
JPS
I agree; I would love to read more adventures written by and through Lady Carnarvon’s “looking glass”! (I always enjoy your comments, Jeffery Sewell, and this one particularly, for the train fact which I didn’t know, and your sweet refrain!)
Thank you, Lisa.
You are too kind.
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Hopefully, not to late to wish you a Happy Anniversary.
Thanks so much for your efforts on the blog. It is a ray of sunshine for us on a winter’s Monday.
Best regards,
Freddy
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
When I visited my daughter, Camille, last October she surprised me with a visit to Highclere. For years we tried to coincide my visit to the UK and a visit to Highclere, without success. The event we attended was a fund raiser for the church. We so enjoyed the tea at the church and your talk before we all went to the castle to explore all its beauty. Reading your Monday blogs brings back sweet memories of that visit.
Best wishes on your wedding anniversary. This month I celebrate another “unbirthday”. I have to wait until 2020 for my 22nd leap year birthday.
Janet Murphy
Thank you – I thought I would offer a church event this year – it is so nice to see the church full. And the of course drink champagne
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
I am so happy to have recently discovered your blog, and I adore your writing. I’m thinking I must read “Alice In Wonderland” again, after your delightful blog today. Our family will be at Highclere on July 22, and we are scheduled for afternoon tea, as well. I can only say, we are three excited Americans! ❤️
Wonderful – you will be having Victoria sponge cakes then!
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
I definitely can imagine being there at Highclere in the way you write and describe everything. Thank you for sharing some more history about Highclere.
I really enjoyed your story about afternoon tea. The tables were set so beautifully. And the cakes, sandwiches, scones and jams look so delicious.
I would like to wish you and your husband a Happy Anniversary. And may God continue to Bless the both of you and your marriage throughout the years.
Sincerely,
Tammy Raglin
Lexington, Kentucky
Thank you!
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Your blog is definitely a cure for the Monday blues…I look forward to it every single week; even share it with the members of our Downton Abbey FB page. You do such a fantastic job illustrating what is going on at Highclere day-in and day-out; whether it is in the present time, Edwardian time or centuries earlier.
However, today’s blog spoke to me in a more allegorical manner…as if to illustrate the recent missed opportunity by the House of Lords in filling the vacant seat with the proper individual. Maybe…just maybe I’m reading too many books telling us of the historical political clicks such as in Phillipa Gregory many books.
PS
Happy Anniversary! Looking forward to the next one!
Alba Bryan
USA
You are right and I am musing..
I anxiously await my own tea at Highclere in May! There are so many things I want to see and experience. I just finished watching “Secrets of Highclere Castle,” and wanted to know if Beacon Hill is accessible to guests. Lord Carnarvon, on the video, showed the 5th Earl’s grave. Such a lovely spot with fantastic views. I am sure it is quite the hike from the castle. Thank you for taking the time to share your writings with the world. I thoroughly enjoy your gift for storytelling!
Beacon Hill is not accessible from the Highclere Estate, but the car park and entrance is a five minute drive from the Castle gates. It is quite a walk up to the top, but the views are spectacular.
I can’t imagine anything nicer than what you described entering Highclere on a horse drawn carriage, followed by a piece of that cake in the photo, beautiful!
Monday Feb 18 was my 64th birthday. I so enjoyed your whimsical story and newest facts about life at Highclere. My childhood reading encompassed Beatrix Potter. I am never too old to enter the world of woodland friends. Happy anniversary and blessings to you both and your son who has a most precious mother.
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
A belated happy anniversary to you and your husband.
And in celebration of your wedding anniversary, these words of a poet whose identity I unfortunately can’t seem to recall:
“Marriage bonds two people in body and mind,
And allows them to appreciate the treasures they find.
Romance and compassion carry them along,
Respect and acceptance make the marriage strong.
Imparting words and actions of love from deep inside,
Acknowledging each other while standing side by side.
Great marriages are created by husbands and wives,
Eternally being grateful they are in each others lives.”
Happy anniversary to you both and many, many more.
Regards & best wishes,
Jeffery Sewell
Thank you !
Love this! That was so lovely to read. Years ago for my twin daughter’s birthday I had a Mad Hatter‘s tea party. I even had a tunnel that went down the stairs. The table with the drink and the key. And then the crazy tea table. It was so much fun to plan and create and so magical for my girls and all their little friends.
I do have tunnels…
My dream weekend would be a lesson in carriage driving and perhaps a hack across the estate. This is the first time I’ve encountered your blog, but I think that would be delightful.
I would rather like a ride in a carriage as well!
You have transported me to that carriage ride. I might visualise it when I’m ready to go to sleep. Thank you.
I would quite like to record some “journeys” too.. I like listening to things as I fall asleep
Hello Lady Carnarvon…..
I have enjoyed your blog for many months now and admire your writing talent. You are so eloquent with describing a picture with just your words. I look forward to each Monday when another lovely writing shows up in my inbox.
I will be visiting your beautiful and majestic home this June (on the 19th for a special tour and the Downton Abbey concert on June 22nd). How lucky I am. I consider both of these once (well, twice) in a lifetime chances.
Will you be present for either of the events? I would so love to meet you! And, will there be jams available in the gift shop that time of the year?
I look forward to your future blog postings and hope to meet you in June. What a treasure you and your home are. I am truely blessed to be coming your way.
Cheers to you, your husband and all the staff who help you keep Highclere shining
Thank you and I hope we have the sun shining too in June!
Thank you sooooo much for opening your home to the public! We just love the opportunity of coming and being able to be part of it, even if just for an afternoon. I love to hear of the tea parties and other events you host at Highclere. Your blog is exciting to read!
Thanks so much,
Teri
Thank you!
Beautiful setting and delightful story. The carriage ride reminded me of the ones I used to take in New York City. The rhythmic clop of the horses hooves on the pavement just added to the peacefulness of the journey. Thanks for your wonderful insight of what we need to start off our week.
Thank you for your lovely story. We had a Mad Hatter Tea Party for my daughter in laws bridal shower 4yrs.ago. Everyone made their own hat and we had a tea cup for everyone. It was a lovely time. I look forward every week to see what adventure your next blog will bring. Thank you so much.
As a retired elementary teacher I so enjoyed your blog today. I had tea parties and read “Alice” to my second graders. Thank you!
Thank you!
Greetings from Wickenburg, Arizona. My husband and I and another couple (well mostly us girls) are delighted to have booked a visit to Highclere Castle and Afternoon Tea for August 8th. Please advise regarding attire for afternoon tea. We certainly want to feel festive and dress appropriately.
Whatever you feel comfortable wearing.