The second epoch of tea was that of excessive taxation; which lasted from the five shillings Customs’ duty of 1688 to 1745, more than half a century, in which fiscal folly and prohibition were almost convertible terms. Yet tea gradually forced its way into domestic use. In a Tatler of 1710 we read ‘I am credibly informed, by an antiquary who has searched the registers in which the bills of fare of the court are recorded, that instead of tea and bread and butter, which have prevailed of late years, the maids of honour in Queen Elizabeth’s time were allowed three rumps of beef for their breakfast.’ Tea for breakfast must have been expensive in 1710. In the original edition of the Tatler, we have many advertisements about tea, one of which we copy:— _From the Tatler of October 10, 1710._ “Mr. Fary’s 16_s._ Bohee 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 30_s._ a pound; so that what is sold at 20_s._ or 21_s._ 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.” ‘Mr. Fary’s 16_s._ Bohee Tea, not much inferior in goodness to the best Foreign Bohee Tea’ was, upon the face of it, an indigenous manufacture. ‘The best Foreign Bohee is worth 30_s._ a pound.’ With such Queen Anne refreshed herself at Hampton Court: ‘Here thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea.’