Tea became a fashionable beverage in England soon after the marriage of Catharine of Braganza with Charles II. It was not exactly introduced by her, as it was procurable in London some months, at any rate, before her marriage; for Pepys writes:—‘Sept. 28, 1660.—I did send for a cup of tea (a China drink), of which I never had drank before.’ Yet she set the fashion for the use of it. Strickland rightly considers that the use of these simple luxuries, tea, coffee, and chocolate, had gradually a beneficial influence on the manners of all classes of society, by forming a counter-charm against habits of intoxication. Waller wrote a complimentary poem on the queen, commending tea, in which are the lines:—
The best of Queens and best of herbs we owe
To that bold nation, who the way did show
To the fair region where the sun doth rise.
All sorts of things have been scribbled about it, good, bad, and indifferent. The same Waller writes:—
The Muses’ friend, Tea, does our fancy aid,
Repress the vapours which the head invade,
And keeps the palace of the soul serene.
Young could write, on the other hand:—
Tea; how I tremble at thy fatal stream!
As Lethe, dreadful to the love of fame.
What devastations on thy banks are seen!
What shades of mighty names which once have been!
A hecatomb of characters supplies
Thy painted altars’ daily sacrifice.
In sympathy with Young would be Dr. Parr, in the well-known line of gallantry:—
Nec tea-cum possum vivere, nec sine te.
or, in mother tongue—
When failing tea, my soul and body thrive,
But failing thee, no longer I survive.