Note 53 — COSTLY SHIPWRECKS.
Reading edition
“Tea was first imported from Holland by the Earls of Arlington and Ossory in 1666; from their ladies the women of quality learned its use. Its price was then £3 a pound, and continued the same to 1707. In 1715 we began to use green tea, and the practice of drinking it descended to the lower class of the people.” “Johnson’s Works,” vol. ii. p. 335. At the beginning of this century tea was 25s. a pound.