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.]