That all classes of the community in this country have derived much benefit from the persistent use of Tea, is placed beyond dispute. It has proved, and still proves, a highly prized boon to millions. The artist at his easel, the author at his desk, the statesman fresh from an exhaustive oration, the actor from the stage after fulfilling an arduous _rôle_, the orator from the platform, the preacher from the pulpit, the toiling mechanic, the wearied labourer, the poor governess, the tired laundress, the humble cottage housewife, the votary of pleasure even, on escaping from the scene of revelry, nay, the Queen on her throne, have, one and all, to acknowledge and express gratitude for the grateful and invigorating infusion. Shortly after it had became fashionable to partake of Tea, persons of quality in England were wont to invite their friends to a “dish” of the newly-imported beverage. Lord Macaulay mentions how “Tea, which at the time Monk brought the Army of Scotland to London (A. D. 1660), had been handed round to be stared at and just touched with the lips as a great rarity of China, was, eighty years later, a regular article of import, and was soon consumed in such quantities that financiers began to consider it as an important source of revenue.” Seven years later Pepys has this entry in his famous Diary: “Home, and there find my wife making of Tea, a drink which Mr. Pelling, the apothicary, tells her is good for her cold.” That Queen Anne ranked among the votaries of the leaf is manifest from Pope’s couplet:-- “Thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes Tay.” From this time forth writers of renown make constant allusions to the new drink. Essayists in the _Spectator_, the _Tatler_, and other literary organs, are ever dropping remarks respecting the tea-table. Pope, in his “Rape of the Lock,” when Belinda is declaring what terrible things she would rather have had happen, than have lost her favourite curl, makes her cap everything by the wish that she could be transported to-- “Some isle Where the gilt chariot never marks the way, Where none learn ombre, none e’er drink Bohea,”-- than which privation she can imagine nothing worse. Then what a source of social pleasure the “afternoon Tea” becomes! Brady, in his well known metrical version of the “Psalms,” thus illustrates the advantages accruing therefrom:-- “When in discourse of Nature’s mystic powers And noblest themes, we pass the well spent hours, Whilst all around the Virtues--sacred band-- And listening Graces, pleased attendants stand. Thus our Tea conversations we employ, Where with delight, instruction we enjoy, Quaffing without the waste of time or wealth, The sovereign drink of pleasure and of health.”