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Everyone
con-
vened
in the parlor- taken from the French parler —to talk— about tea. Sandy showed us a special wooden tea caddy, which the women of the house kept under lock and key, as tea was a pre- cious commody. e lady of the house held the key. As elsewhere in the Em- pire, even the le over tea leaves were reused by the servants and then resold out to the street. Tea was carried by ship, and originally Chinese Green tea
was the pre- ferred drink followed
by black. We learned the impor-
tance of putting your teaspoon in the cup and not to the side as a signal to the hostess to stop pouring tea. Social graces and manners were considered essentials of the period with calling cards le at the front hall door on a silver tray as an invitation for intro- duction at a prearranged date. So there was no such thing as, “just dropping by.” Social behaviour was governed by rules that were rarely broken.
