As young as on your day of birth,
A true immortal on the earth.”
However hyperbolical this testimony may be considered, it at least serves to show the high estimation in which the plant was held in China.
The first literary eulogist to espouse the cause of the new drink in Europe was Edmund Waller, reciting how he became first induced to taste it. In a poem containing several references to the leaf occurs the following pregnant allusion to tea:—
“The muses friend doth our fancy aid,
Repress these vapors which the head invade,
Keeping that palace of the soul serene.”
That Queen Anne ranked among its votaries is manifest from Pope’s celebrated couplet:—
“Though great Anna, whom the realms obey,
Doth sometimes counsel take and—sometimes Tea.”