“And what tea would modom like?” our impeccably dressed and mannered waitress asked as we sat down daintily for our High Tea at Blenheim.

The Palace has opened up The Orangery, previously reserved for weddings and events for the likes of Michael Jackson, er, someone from JLS and footballer John Terry, and now available to us mere mortals where we can dine for brunch, lunch, tea and dinner like a character out of a Monty Python novel- ‘one more wafer thin mint.’

My daughter, nine that day, looked at me suspiciously and whispered, “you told me it was cakes, you know I don’t like tea.”

When I explained that tea was just the traditional beverage that accompanied her tiered display of sandwiches, cakes, scones, savouries, confectionary and patisseries, and that she could have a lemonade if she wanted, she brightened up.

It’s a beautiful regal space The Orangery, reached by crossing through the first gate and turning left in the first courtyard, the Orangery itself an arched, tiled, tasteful room with beautiful views into the grounds beyond, and a great sense of occasion about the place.

It was however scaldingly hot, the hottest day of the year when the heat drained all life and energy from Woodstock’s inhabitants and the thought of eating ones own body weight in sugar and flour was slightly less appealing than normal.

We gave it our best go, despite the lack of air conditioning. All the windows were open and a vague, hot, soporific breeze blew at us, but we had to eat fast before the sandwiches wilted and the cakes melted, the cream for the scones scarcely withstanding the temperature, the macaroons literally pooling green filling around its pistachio flavoured biscuits.

But that is to digress, because the tea itself was magnificent – delicious finger sandwiches – egg, cucumber, ham, a lovely cheese and onion crunch, all on different breads, mini cheese quiches with a dollop of red onion marmalade and a a fish paste blini.

Warm said scones had a lovely sticky crunchy top and tiny pots of jam.

But it was the top layer of the cake tier that really took the biscuit (see what I did there) with its wide ranging of offerings from the pistachio macaroon to a layered coffee mousse galette with a white chocolate biscuit and raspberry on top, a crisp strawberry tart, a cream bun freshly piped, a peach slice, the peach fanned across the top and more like an amande, and a marzipan chocolate with strawberry filling. Each.

Yes, you read that right, we had an entire three tiered tea each to consume, my daughter growing quieter and quieter with each layer. Of course we each had our personal favourites, for her the puffed cream bun, for me the strawberry tart, all washed down with pot after pot of tea.

But when a beautifully decorated chocolate brownie arrived at the end complete with Happy Birthday in icing sugar, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

In fact she needed a full lie down on the window seat after gorging herself silly and walked back through the grounds rather unsteadily to our car.

As far as High Teas go, eating in the Orangery seems about as perfect a setting as any, considering it was the Duchess of Bedford who invented afternoon tea, The Earl of Sandwich who invented a new lunch, and earl grey adding to out tea collection. The Duke of Marlborough must be racking his brains to come up with the next high tea offering.

In the meantime, traditional Afternoon Tea at Bl;enheim Palace costs £19.95 per person, £30 with a glass of champagne and £40 with a trio of champagnes.