ABSTRACT
First mention of a beverage from tea. Importation of tea into England. Tea sold in public-houses before 1660. Pepys and the ‘ new China drink.’ The East India Company's practical monopoly of the trade. Increase in tea-drinking in the higher classes. Lord-Keeper North and his visitors. ‘ The teacup times of hoop and hood.’ Peter Motteux, the poet of tea. Lord Hervey a great tea-drinker. The ‘ sophisticating of tea.’ Tea becomes an ordinary drink with the middle classes. Arthur Young on tea-drinking in 1770. Tea for breakfast with the maids ! Smuggling revived. Increase in the fabrication of false tea. Stringent enactments against it. Wedgwood's teacups. Pitt reduces the duty. Cowper's ‘ hissing urn.’ Tea becomes an article of general consumption.
