A la Colthard /The Royal Crescent and Bath experience.

After my third visit the Royal Crescent remains one of mt favourite hotels in the world.

It’s immediate location in the Crescent itself is a great plus but the welcome, service, room and garden all add to the enjoyment.

My only criticisms would be the muzak in the dining room and its situation on the periphery of Bath town centre.

On the first night I sampled the tasting menu at £85.

The cuisine was that delicate, small portion, concoction beloved of a Michelin-starred restaurant.

We began with an artichoke salad with a Somerset cheese and Iberico ham.

The halibut in a curried broth with mussels was tasty but the venison for mains about the size of a 50p piece.

Often the puds are best in such establishments and I enjoyed the Apple posset – a type of foamy mousse – but the rhubarb tart afterwards was too sweet for me.

As one now expects, the wine list was expensive.

I had a glass of Dr Loosen Riesling – roughly the same price as a bottle in the fine wine cellar in Waitrose.

Having been to Bath twice I had ‘done’ the Pump Room and Roman baths.

Nonetheless Bath is not just attractive for its elegant honey-stoned architecture but for its Roman and Georgian traditions and ancestry.

We enjoyed seeing the Tudor portraits in the Holburne Museum.

The Tudors remain the best know royal dynasty so all the more fascinating to admire the portraits of Henry VIII, Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots and the three Thomases –  More, Cranmer and Cromwell.

I sometimes wonder what being married to Henry would like been like – I expect I would have got the chop!!!