INTRODUCTION OF TEA INTO ENGLAND.
Before Tea found its way to England, it had been brought to Holland,
thanks to the treaty made by the Dutch with the Japanese. If the
Dutchman, as a rule, did not forego his favourite lager and schnapps to
take to Tea so readily as did the English, nevertheless, there were not
wanting upholders of the new beverage in the land of “dykes, ducks, and
Dutchmen,” as somebody construed Voltaire’s famous “_cancana, canards,
canaille_.” The first to advocate the wonderful leaf was Cornelius
Bontekoe, principal physician to the Elector of Brandenburgh, a
Professor in the University of Leyden, and a man of more than ordinary
eminence. In a treatise on “Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate,” published in
1679, he strongly pronounces in favour of the first-named drink, and
denies the possibility of its being hurtful to health, even if taken
in such an inordinate quantity as one or two hundred cups a day, a
statement as extravagant as it is impracticable.
The introduction of Tea into England is by some presumed to date from
the year of our Lord 1652. If such be authentic, the quantity of the
leaf imported during the Commonwealth must have been extremely limited,
probably not exceeding a few pounds, such as Blake and “sea-dogs” of
his order discovered in the cabins of ships they had captured from the
Dutch. Equally questionable is the statement of other authorities,
who give the year 1666 as that wherein the first importation of Tea
took place. No doubt, many important events were commonly attributed
to the year 1666, which the poet Dryden had essayed to render more
remarkable still by his poem on the _Annus Mirabilis_. Lords Arlington
and Orrery are credited with having first rendered the drinking of Tea
fashionable. Six years previous to the remarkable year just noticed,
Pepys records in his “Diary”: “I sent for a cup of Tea, a Chinese
drink, of which I had never drunk before.” So that it is evident the
rare beverage was then coming into use. Shortly afterwards a measure
passed the legislature, enacting that an impost of eightpence per
gallon should be paid on all Tea prepared and sold in coffee-houses.
[Illustration: GATHERING THE SPRING CROP.--The leaves are plucked with
great care, not more than one being plucked from the stalk at a time;
notwithstanding this, an expert can gather 10 to 13 lbs. per day.]
A singular handbill was issued by Thomas Garway, the founder of
Garraway’s somewhat famous coffee-house, in Exchange (subsequently
Exchange-alley). This announcement was by chance discovered some years
since in a volume of pamphlets in the “King’s Library,” British Museum,
where it may still be inspected. Albeit the document bears no date,
but there is ample internal evidence to prove that it had been printed
about the year 1660. It purposes to be “An exact description of the
growth, quality, and virtues of the leaf Tea, by Thomas Garway, in
Exchange-alley, near the Royal Exchange, in London, Tobacconist and
Seller and Retailer of Tea and Coffee.”
Subjoined is the quaint description given of the plant:--
“Tea is generally brought from China, and groweth there upon little
shrubs and bushes, the branches whereof are well garnished with
white flowers, that are yellow within, of the bigness and fashion
of sweet-briar, but in smell unlike, bearing their green leaves,
about the bigness of scordium, myrtle, or sumach, and is judged to
be a kind of sumach. This plant hath been reported to grow wild
only, but doth not; for they plant it in their gardens, about
four foot distance, and it groweth about four foot high, and of
the seeds they maintain and increase their stock. Of all places
in China this plant groweth in greatest plenty in the province of
Xemsi, latitude 36°, bordering upon the west of the province of
Nanking, near the city of Luchow, the Island de Ladrones and Japan,
and is called ‘Cha.’ Of this famous leaf there are divers sorts
(though all one shape), some much better than others, the upper
leaves excelling the others in fineness, a property almost in all
plants; which leaves they gather every day, and drying them in
the shade, or in iron pans over a gentle fire, till the humidity
be exhausted, then put close up in leaden pots, preserve them for
their drink. _Tea_, which is used at meals and upon all visits and
entertainments in private families, and in the palaces of grandees;
and it is owned by a padee of Macas, native of Japan, that the best
Tea ought to be gathered by virgins, who are destined for this work.
* * * * *
“The said leaf is of such known virtues, that those very nations
so famous for antiquity, knowledge, and wisdom, do frequently sell
it among themselves for twice its weight in silver, and the high
estimation of the drink made there-with hath occasioned an inquiry
into the nature thereof amongst the most intelligent persons of all
nations that have travelled in those parts, who after exact tryal
and experience by all wayes imaginable, have commended it to the
use of their several countries, and for its virtues and operations.
The quality is moderately hot, proper for winter and summer. The
drink is declared to be most wholesome, preserving in perfect
health until extreme old age.”
Then the writer proceeds at considerable length to enumerate the
“Vertues” of Tea, some of which are decidedly apocryphal. Amongst
other properties attributed to the beverage are those of making
the body active and lusty, helping the headache, giddiness, and
heaviness, removing difficulty of breathing, clearing the sight,
removing lassitude, strengthening the stomach and liver, causing good
appetite and digestion, vanquishing heavy dreams, easing the frame,
strengthening the memory, preventing sleepiness, “so that whole nights
may be spent in study without hurt to the body,” strengthening the
inward parts and preventing consumption, especially when drank with
milk. “And that the virtues and excellencies of this leaf and drink,”
continues Mr. Garway, “are many and great is evident and manifest by
the high esteem and use of it among the physicians and knowing men
of France, Italy, Holland, and other parts of Christendom, while in
England it hath been sold in the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes
ten pounds for the one pound weight; and in respect of its former
scarceness and dearness, it hath only been used as a regalia in high
treatments, and presents made thereof to princes and grandees till the
year 1657.
“The said Thomas Garway,” so the handbill proceeds, “did purchase a
quantity thereof and first publicly sold the said Tea in leaf and
drink, made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants
and travellers in those Eastern countries, and upon knowledge and
experience of the said Thomas Garway’s continual care and industry in
obtaining the best Tea, and making drink thereof, very many noblemen,
physicians, and merchants, and gentlemen of quality, have ever since
sent to him for the said leaf, and daily resort to his house in
Exchange-alley aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof.”
Finally the writer closes his remarkable encomium in these words:
“And that ignorance nor envy may have no ground or power to report or
suggest that which is here asserted of the vertues and excellences of
this precious leaf and drink hath more of design than truth, for its
justification of himself and the satisfaction of others he hath here
enumerated several authors who in their learned works have expressly
written and asserted the same and much more in honour of his noble
leaf and drink, viz.:--Bontius, Riccius, Jarricas, Almeyda, Horstius,
Alvarez, Sameda, Martinivus in his _China Atlas_, and Alexander de
Rhodes in _Voyage and Missions_, in a large discourse of the ordering
of this leaf and the many vertues of the drink; printed at Paris, 1653,
part x. chap. 13. And to the end that all persons of eminency and
quality, gentlemen and others, who have occasion for Teas in leaf, may
be supplied, these are to give notice that the said Thomas hath Tea to
sell from _sixteen to fifty shillings in the pound_.”
Doubtless if the beverage possessed even but a tithe of the virtues
and excellences attributed to it by the celebrated Garway, it must be
regarded as the crowning boon of Nature to man.
[Illustration]