TEA. 2})1 



who brought it into fashion among people of 

 quality. This was the year after the great 

 plague of London, and it may have been 

 considered an antidote against that disorder. 

 If this opinion was entertained, we need not 

 be surprised at the rapidity with which tea 

 came into use. 



Mills informs us in his History of India, that 

 the English East India Company sent their 

 first order for tea in the year 1667-8, when 

 they ordered their agents " to send home bj 

 their ships one-hundred pounds weight of the 

 best tey that you can get ;" and in the year 

 1676-7, tea to the value of one-hundred 

 dollars was ordered on the Company's ac- 

 count. 



Worlidge informs us in his / imtum lhi- 

 tannicum, which was published in 1675, that 

 "Mr. Thomas Garway, in Exchange-alley, 

 near the Royal Exchange, was the principal, 

 if not the first promoter and disperse! of this 

 leaf and liquor in London. He had," says 

 Worlidge, " a paper printed, declaring the 

 virtues of this beverage against all affections 

 of the head, and obstructions in the stomach, 

 the spleen, and the reins. It drieth ii]) all 

 vapours that offend the head, and annoy the 

 sight; it digesteth any thing that lieth heavy 



v 2 



