It was a lovely sunny spring day when we visited the museum, so we made the most of the weather and enjoyed the lovely views from the terrace in front of the main house to eat our lunch.

The inside of the orangery café is also very pleasant, and there are two rooms, so plenty of space.

However, the attraction of wooden tables on stone flags, overlooking the wide green lawns where picnickers were enjoying their own lunches, was too good to pass up.

The choice of hot meals, snacks and sandwiches in the café took a while to browse. Soup and half a sandwich seemed rather an odd choice, though we liked the idea of the American special, a plate filled with a selection of salads, with a large and small option.

In the end we settled for two quiches with salad, at £6.60 – you can have just quiche for £3.60 if you aren’t a salad fan – and a jacket potato with red bean chilli, £5.45, all washed down with soft drinks, two elderflower pressé and a ginger beer, £2.50 each. The quiche that day came in three varieties, cheese and broccoli, cheese and ham and cheese and red onion, and we went for the latter two.

The slices were very generous and the filling deliciously creamy. We had chosen green, coleslaw and Waldorf salads, and they made a lovely cool crunchy contrast.

The jacket potato was enormous, and perfectly cooked, although my daughter said she would have preferred the chilli to be a little spicier.

We were tempted by the huge range of American cookies, brownies and bakes on offer for pudding, from £1.15, but decided we would save that indulgence for another day.

You have to pay admission to the museum to use the café, but with gardens only costing £5.50/£4.50/£3.50 (companions for the disabled free), and enough there to see and do to entertain young and old, we felt that wasn’t too much of a hardship.