餐厅是一个正式的、男性化的房间，用于招待客人。风格清醒，是主人社会地位的象征。
英国人吃的是“a la francaise”，这种风格的餐桌上同时摆满了许多菜肴，食客们会自己去吃最接近的东西。仆人清理盘子但没有上菜。
Fashionable dining promoted a desire for elegant tableware and English porcelain factories flourished with the increased demand for consumer goods. A formal dining set would have cost £32 which is the equivalent of more than £2,000 today.
Dessert was the high point of an elaborate Georgian dinner and gave the host an opportunity to display wealth through serving expensive sugary sweetmeats, syllabubs and creams, as well as elaborate sugar sculpture table decorations. At Christmas, the table is dressed for a festive Georgian feast, with sweet treats on display.
Luxuries often featured on the Dining Room table came at a terrible human cost. As the British sweet tooth grew demand for sugar increased and the British transatlantic slave trade flourished. By the 1770’s the stolen labour of thousands of enslaved Africans was producing the 12lb per person of sugar consumed annually in Britain in rooms such as this one.
From a Welsh family, Barker moved to Bath in 1785. A prodigious Bath painter, he was particularly good at portraits and was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy. His work could command very high prices by the 1820s.
On loan from Tate Britain.
Anne Waller of Hall-Barn, Beaconsfield married Sir Miles Staplyton (1706 – 91) to become Lady Staplyton in 1738. Italian Artist Andra Soldi came to London in 1735 and was reasonably successful, but by the end of his life had to turn to the Royal Academy for financial charity.
On loan from the National Portrait Gallery
Miss Evelyn is believed to have been related to diarist John Evelyn. The portrait is signed in the lower left-hand corner and dated 1742. Allan Ramsey was a Scottish portrait painter who moved to London in 1762 and was considered technically excellent. He was the Principal Painter in Ordinary to George III and a noted abolitionist.
A family has arrived in Bath to stay. Meet the mother, father, eldest son and two daughters enjoying breakfast around the table. The middle son is a soldier fighting in America and the youngest son is poorly and has stayed at home in the country. Whilst in Bath the family will attend balls and visit the baths to enjoy the hot water.
Look at the foods laid out on the table, from meats and nuts to muffins and fruit do these look like the foods that you would eat for breakfast today?
