Step into the eighteenth-century at Middlethorpe Hall Hotel and Spa and live like the lords and ladies of a lost era. As the porter, with green and gold-braided uniform, takes your luggage, you’ll feel as if a title of nobility has been bestowed.

“Very good, Sir,” says a waiter, as I request afternoon tea. His approving tone suggests that I have made a decision of immense wisdom – and I have. There can be few more elegant places for afternoon tea than the South Lawn at Middlethorpe Hall.

This is not just a mellow red-brick piece of English History with echoes of regal Hampton Court, a place where you merely wander through grand public rooms and exquisitely landscaped acres for just an hour or two. This is hands-on-living history with an Age of Enlightenment glow. An opportunity to sleep in a four-poster bed, dine in a room panelled with dark wood way back in 1699 and walk through grounds of towering specimen trees, some planted more than two centuries ago.

Middlethorpe Hall, owned by the National Trust to best preserve this unique national treasure, is not open to the general public. Though it is run by Historic House Hotels, guests can stay or book lunch, afternoon tea or dinner at the AA two rosette restaurant.

Middlethorpe Hall was built to impress. Take an admiring look at the symmetrical architecture, at the imposing imperial stone eagle sat on the horizontal roofline, at the impressive acres of lawns.

As the 17th century drew to a close Thomas Butler, who had made his fortune manufacturing knives in Sheffield, moved to the outskirts of fashionable York to shake off the nouveau riche tag and emphatically establish himself as a worthy gentleman. Having taken a Grand Tour of Europe, there was the occasional Italianate flourish to Butler’s new home, but he aimed to create the quintessential English gentleman’s home. Even the restored dovecote is more spacious than some contemporary starter homes.

It was just as well that Thomas Barlow built and planted with an eye for posterity, with a desire to leave a legacy. In 1713, whilst accompanying his son Francis on a Grand Tour, Barlow suddenly fell ill in France and died.

Since 1980, Historic House Hotels, when they purchased Middlethorpe, have scoured antique dealers and auctions to recreate the elegant grandeur of past centuries. Sumptuous sofas and wingback chairs are overseen by portraits of Butler’s sombre and serious successors. Vibrant flower displays bring vivid colour to the rooms: agapanthus, dahlias, daisies and roses, all freshly cut from the grounds.

Although Middlethorpe is just a short drive from York’s City Centre with its attractions of York Minster, the National Railway Museum, the Jorvik Viking Centre and the Shambles, many guests relax into a lifestyle that Butler would have recognised.

After perhaps reading the newspaper in the Drawing Room or selecting a book from the well-stocked library, it is time for a stroll around Middlethorpe’s 20 acres. The National Trust provides a map to identify the specimen trees: a Cedar of Lebanon, the Northern Red Oak, the Judas Tree and many more.

Returning from the lake, there is a chance for a game of croquet on the lawn, before heading into the Walled Garden whose brickwork has created a warm sun-trap of fertility for centuries. Some of the pear trees are so old that their names have been long-forgotten. This year, though, it is the cherries which have been the stars, and the chef has plans for a sauce to accompany a starter: though every year pear jellies appear on the autumnal menus.

Over the centuries, Middlethorpe has seen many changes, and the lockdown of 2020 has prompted more. Wherever possible menus are seasonal and locally sourced but disruption to suppliers has encouraged the chef and gardeners to plan a new potager bed to provide herbs, fruit, flowers and vegetables. As you chat to the gardener, checking on the progress of damsons, greengages and peaches, it is as if the spirit of Thomas Butler lives on.

But the spa, housed in two 18th century cottages along the lane, is a very contemporary experience with its warm indoor pool and treatment rooms.

Once are you are settled into Middlethorpe Hall, it seems a pity to leave the calm of the 18th century. Even turning on the television in your room – or using the Nespresso machine – seems as if it might break Middlethorpe Hall’s magical age-old spell of poised tranquillity.