The days are getting shorter again and autumn has arrived with its blustery winds and changeable weather – ‘sunshine and rain at once’ as Shakespeare comments in his play ‘King Lear’.  Fallen leaves are strewn across my front lawn. A sign that summer is over. I am reminded of the transience of all things as I sit here by my candle. Perhaps this is appropriate as I have a birthday approaching at the weekend. Another year in my life is fast ending.

 I have reached the autumn of my life. As Shakespeare says in Sonnet 73:

                ‘That time of year thou mayst in me behold,

                 When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang

                 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

                 Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.

 As I approach my 69th year, I realise that I am leaving the autumn of my years and nearing the threshold of winter!  But I should not be thinking of my future. As my dear friend Marcus writes in his own ‘Meditations’: ‘Confine yourself to the present.’ In other words: live in the moment. He also encourages me when he writes, ‘There is nothing to fear in the termination, the pause and the changes of your whole life.’

Change can sadden us however. I was reminded of this recently on a visit to Stratford-Upon- Avon.

Whenever I go to Stratford, one of my rituals is to frequent Anne Hathaway’s Tea Room in the High Street. It is a historic building dating from the 17th Century, with wooden beamed ceilings, oak floors, a baker’s shop at the front and a large garden at the back. It is named after Shakespeare’s wife of course.  The tea room originally opened in 1931 and has been a fixture of town life ever since.  I have often brought friends there on my visits for breakfast or tea and cake, generally in the beautiful garden.

However, on my most recent visit, in conversation with Sarah, the new owner, I learnt that the establishment may have to close. The previous owner fell foul of the lockdown and had to give up the business and sadly, despite Sarah being an expert baker (especially in Tudor recipes), business hasn’t picked up again so well since she took over. The proliferation of coffee shops in Stratford obviously hasn’t helped either. Coffee shops have become highly fashionable now. If you happen to be in Stratford soon do go and visit. It appears to still be open at present!

As I sat in the garden that morning after I chatted to her, the idea that the Tea Room may not be there on my next visit quite upset me. I will probably not return to Stratford  until next year and by then it may have gone.

You see, the Tea Room has been a constant in my infrequent visits over the years. I first went there in 1964, when I was 11 years old. 1964 was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth.  I was on a day trip by coach with my mum and my grandmother from London (where we were having a week’s holiday). I was very excited as I had lapped up everything about Shakespeare so far that year. There were a lot of programmes on the TV because of the 400th and some of his plays too. I remember there were several Shakespeare posters in my primary school as well, including a huge poster of the imagined interior of the Globe Theatre, where many of his plays were performed. Strangely, many years later, I found a copy of this poster at the school where I taught and in pristine condition too.  Nowadays of course you can see a reconstructed version of the theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe, at Bankside, near to where the real Globe was sited, by the river Thames, on London’s South Bank.

I  also remember borrowing a copy of ‘Tales from Shakespeare’ from the public library. The book was illustrated with photos from productions at the theatre in Stratford.

Sadly we didn’t have time to see a play on our visit, but I remember we did see the theatre by the river and I picked up a brochure about the performances, which I greatly treasured later. We also went to Shakespeare’s birthplace and Anne Hathaway’s cottage. Then we had high tea in the Tea Room.

The Tea Room made a real impression on me as a child. We sat upstairs overlooking the street.  I remember the dark but warm interior with its beamed ceiling and the large fireplace and the brass plates and horse brasses adorning the wide mantelpiece. I don’t think there was a fire burning in the grate but then it was summer. The stairs and oak floors creaked as we walked on them, despite the old carpets. The tables and chairs looked old too, like being in a farmhouse. It was all very atmospheric, like stepping back in time. I imagined Shakespeare himself might walk up the wooden stairs at any moment.

High tea seems to have disappeared from menus now. Perhaps because we are in the age of ‘all day menus’.  It was different from afternoon tea with sandwiches and cakes and scones, which is now very much in vogue. High tea could be sandwiches but could also be a light meal such as Welsh rarebit, scrambled or poached egg  on toast, or beans on toast, or a pasty or pie or even fish or fish fingers and chips or cheese flan, our British version of quiche. I can’t remember what I ate but everything in the Tea Room was cosy – the cosiness of childhood.

You may be asking yourself why I am waxing lyrical about a tea room. After all I can’t imagine anyone waxing lyrical about a Starbucks or a Costa coffee shop. Although a friend of mine did develop an affection for a Costa coffee shop at a service station near her during the lockdowns. She would go there in the car and buy a coffee and a newspaper and sit in her car with them. It was her daily excursion, her little ritual, to break up the monotony of the day.

Along with watching productions at the theatre, strolling along the river Avon, seeing the historical sights, a few drinks in the Dirty Duck (the actors’ pub) and sharing all these with friends, the tea room has always been part of the Stratford experience for me, part of my Stratford. My visits have been very infrequent over the years, though more recently, they have been an annual event, but as I mentioned earlier, the tea room has always been there. I also have happy memories of taking friends there over the years.. Most important it was there when I was a child,  at the source of the Shakespeare stream which has flowed through my life.

As you may have gathered, Stratford is a special place for me. I am always excited when I go there. I have even sometimes considered moving there. I said this to one of my students on a trip to the theatre there a long time ago. He made the sensible comment that Stratford wouldn’t be the same if I lived there. It is good that there are places that we always enjoy visiting, that we like to return to, that give us ‘a shot in the arm’, as he put it. 

I would add that it is good to visit places that always speak to us, that not only refresh us, but also speak to our soul. The poet W.H.Auden called such places ‘numinous’, meaning ‘a place that is spiritual’ , that takes us to another plane, that speaks to our spirit.

A place that speaks to us, even over a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

Ave atque Vale – until the next blog.

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Neilus Aurelius