MacGregor's main purpose in providing the quote is to
Read the excerpt from Early Victorian Tea Set.
Among the upper classes, tea had been popular since
before 1700. It received celebrity endorsement from
Charles II's queen, Catherine of Braganza, and from
Queen Anne. It came from China, it was expensive,
refreshingly bitter and drunk in tiny cups without milk or
sugar. People kept their tea in locked tea caddies, as if it
were a drug; for those who could afford it, it often was. In
the 1750s Samuel Johnson confessed himself a happy
addict
explain why only the upper classes could afford to drink
tea
express his viewpoint on the importance of drinking tea
often
illustrate how celebrities preferred their tea with sugar
and milk
support his statement that people locked away their tea
like it was a drug.
A hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for
twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of
this fascinating plant, whose kettle scarcely has time to
cool, who with Tea amuses the evening, with Tea
solaces the midnights, and with Tea welcomes the
morning