THE LITTLE TEA BOOK 



erages wine and ale and reject 

 coffee, chocolate, and tea, which were 

 all equally bad for them. 



In spite of the array of old-fash- 

 ioned doctors, wits, and lovers of the 

 pipe and bottle, who opposed evil 

 effects, sneered at the finely bred 

 men of England being turned into 

 women, and grumbled at the stingy 

 custom of calling for dish-water after 

 dinner, the custom of tea-drinking 

 continued to grow. By 1689 the sale 

 of the leaf had increased sufficiently 

 to make it politic to reduce the duty 

 on it from eight pence on the decoc- 

 tion to five shillings a pound on the 

 leaf. The value of tea at this time 

 may be estimated from a custom- 

 house report of the sale of a quantity 

 of divers sorts and qualities, the 

 worst being equal to that "used in 



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