Tea With The President

Introduced by the East India Company-Mrs. Pepys making her first cup of tea-Virtues of tea-Thomas Garway's advertisement-Waller's birthday ode-Tea a rarity in country homes-Introduced into the Quaker School-Extension of tea-drinking-The social tea-table a national delight-England the largest consumer of tea.

"I sent for a cup of tee-a China drink-of which I had never drank before," writes Pepys in his diary of the 25th of September, 1660. It appears, however, that it came into England in 1610; but at ten guineas a pound it could scarcely be expected to make headway. A rather large consignment was, however, received in 1657; this fell into the hands of a thriving London merchant, Mr. Thomas Garway, who established a house for selling the prepared beverage. Another writer states that tea was introduced by the East India Company early in 1571. Though it may not be possible to fix the exact date, one fact is clear, that it was a costly beverage. Not until 1667 did it find its way into Pepys' own house. "Home," he says, "and there find my wife making of tea, a drink which Mr. Pelling, the potticary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions." Commenting upon this entry, Charles Knight said, "Mrs. Pepys making her first cup of tea is a subject to be painted. How carefully she metes out the grains of the precious drug which Mr. Pelling, the potticary, has sold her at an enormous price-a crown an ounce at the very least; she has tasted the liquor once before, but then there was sugar in the infusion-a beverage only for the highest. If tea should become fashionable, it will cost in their housekeeping as much as their claret. However, Pepys says the price is coming down, and he produces the handbill of Thomas Garway, in Exchange Alley, which the lady peruses with great satisfaction."

This handbill is an extraordinary production. It is entitled "An exact description of the growth, quality, and virtues of the leaf tea, by Thomas Garway, in Exchange Alley, near the Royal Exchange in London, tobacconist, and seller and retailer of tea and coffee." It sets forth that-

"Tea is generally brought from China, and groweth there upon little shrubs and bushes. The branches whereof are well garnished with white flowers that are yellow within, of the lightness and fashion of sweet-brier, but in smell unlike, bearing thin green leaves about the bigness of scordium, myrtle, or sumack; and is judged to be a kind of sumack. This plant hath been reported to grow wild only, but doth not; for they plant it in the gardens, about four foot distance, and it groweth about four foot high; and of the seeds they maintain and increase their stock. Of this leaf there are divers sorts (though all one shape); some much better than others, the upper leaves excelling the others in fineness, a property almost in all plants; which leaves they gather every day, and drying them in the shade or in iron pans, over a gentle fire, till the humidity be exhausted, then put close up in leaden pots, preserve them for their drink tea, which is used at meals and upon all visits and entertainments in private families, and in the palaces of grandees; and it is averred by a padre of Macao, native of Japan, that the best tea ought to be gathered but by virgins, who are destined for this work. The particular virtues are these; it maketh the body active and lusty; it helpeth the head ache, giddiness and heaviness thereof; it removeth the obstructiveness of the spleen; it is very good against the stone and gravel, cleaning the kidneys and ureters, being drank with virgin's honey, instead of sugar; it taketh away the difficulty of breathing, opening obstructions; it is good against tipitude, distillations, and cleareth the sight; it removeth lassitude and cleanseth and purifieth acrid humours and a hot liver; it is good against crudities, strengthening the weakness of the ventricle, or stomach, causing good appetite and digestion, and particularly for men of corpulent body, and such as are great eaters of flesh; it vanquisheth heavy dreams, easeth the frame and strengtheneth the memory; it overcometh superfluous sleep, and prevents sleepiness in general, a draught of the infusion being taken; so that, without trouble, whole nights may be spent in study without hurt to the body, in that it moderately healeth and bindeth the mouth of the stomach."

Other remarkable properties are attributed to the Chinese herb; but the extracts we have given sufficiently indicate the efforts made to arrest attention and to induce people to buy tea. As a further inducement, this enterprising dealer assures his readers that whereas tea "hath been sold in the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes for ten pounds the poundweight, the said Thomas hath ten to sell from sixteen to fifty shillings in the pound." This clever puff had the desired effect; for, according to the Diurnal of Thomas Rugge, "There were at this time (1659) a Turkish drink, to be souled almost in every street, called coffee, and another kind of drink called tea; and also a drink called chocolate, which was a very hearty drink." It was advertised in the public journals. The Mercurius Politicus, of the 30th of September, 1658, sets forth: "That excellent, and by all physicians approved, China drink, called by the Chineans Teha, by other nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the 'Sultaness Head' coffee-house, in Sweeting's Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London." It was sold also at "Jonathan's" coffee-house, in Exchange Alley. In her "Bold Strike for a Wife" Mrs. Centlivre laid one of her scenes at "Jonathan's." While the business goes on she makes the coffee boys cry, "Fresh coffee, gentlemen! fresh coffee! Bohea tea, gentlemen!" But the most famous house for tea was Garway's, or, as it appears in "Old and New London," "Garraway's Coffee-house," which was swept away a few years ago in the "march of improvement." For two centuries, however, it had been one of the most celebrated coffee-houses in the city. Defoe mentions it as being frequented about noon by people of quality who had business in the city, and "the more considerable and wealthy citizens;" but it was also the resort of speculators. Here the South Sea Bubblers met, as well as the lovers of good tea. Dean Swift, in his ballad on the South Sea Bubble, calls 'Change Alley "a narrow sound, though deep as hell;" and describes the wreckers watching for the shipwrecked dead on "Garraway's Cliffs."

But the influence of Royalty did more than anything else to make tea-drinking fashionable. "In 1662," remarks Mr. Montgomery Martin, in a treatise on the 'Past and Present State of the Tea Trade,' published in 1832, "Charles II. married the Princess Catherine of Portugal, who, it was said, was fond of tea, having been accustomed to it in her own country, hence it became fashionable in England." Edmund Waller, in a birthday ode on her Majesty, ascribes the introduction of the herb to the queen, in the following lines:-

"Venus her myrtle, Ph?be has his bays;

Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise.

The best of Queens and best of herbes we owe,

To that bold nation which the way did show

To the fair region, where the sun does rise,

Whose rich productions we so justly prize.

The Muse's friend, tea, does our fancy aid,

Repress those vapours which the head invade,

And keeps that palace of the soul serene,

Fit on her birthday to salute the Queen."

Waller is believed to have been the first poet to write in praise of tea, and no doubt his poem did much to promote its use among the rich. In Lord Clarendon's diary, 10th of February, 1688, occurs the following entry:-

"Le Père Couplet supped with me; he is a man of very good conversation. After supper we had tea, which he said was as good as any he had drank in China. The Chinese, who came over with him and Mr. Fraser, supped likewise with us."

In the Tatler, of the 10th of October, 1710, appears the following advertisement:-

"Mr. Favy's 16s. Bohea tea, not much inferior in goodness to the best foreign Bohee tea, is sold by himself only at the 'Bell,' in Gracechurch Street. Note.-The best foreign Bohee is worth 30s. a pound; so that what is sold at 20s. or 21s. must either be faulty tea, or mixed with a proportionate quantity of damaged green or Bohee, the worst of which will remain black after infusion."

Tea continued a fashionable drink. Dr. Alex. Carlyle, in his "Autobiography," describing the fashionable mode of living at Harrowgate in 1763, wrote:-"The ladies gave afternoon's tea and coffee in their turn, which coming but once in four or six weeks amounted to a trifle." Probably the ladies did not drink so much as their servants, who are reported to have cared more for tea than for ale. In 1755 a visitor from Italy wrote:-"Even the common maid-servants must have their tea twice a day in all the parade of quality; they make it their bargain at first; this very article amounts to as much as the wages of servants in Italy." This demand was a serious tax upon the purses of the rich; for at that time tea was still excessively dear. According to Read's Weekly Journal, or British Gazetteer, of the 27th of April, 1734, the prices were as follows:-

Green tea 9s. to 12s. per lb.

Congon 10s. " 12s. "

Bohea 10s. " 12s. "

Pekoe 14s. " 16s. "

Imperial 9s. " 12s. "