Drinking tea? The thin end of the wedge?

jeni I don't get it....

I seem to remember reading it in a collection of poetry that was set for O level. It was on the page before khubla khan.
It was a very odd mixture. It ranged from Tam o Shanter to the Ancient Mariner , by way of the Prisoner of Chillon and Sohrab and Rustin.

Alie thanks. That would explain it as my Dad was a 'Little White Ribboner' in his youth. Didn't put him off the demon drink as an adult though after an op for a stomach ulcer he was a cautious and secret drinker - secret in the sense that he would have one whisky and then have dry ginger as pretend whisky for the rest of the party.

One of my GGFs signed the pledge. Several times.
My late FIL was one of the few teetotal Irishmen I have ever heard of. Maybe he just didn't like it v much, like his son. Or maybe he was one of those people who was always 3 drinks ahead of everyone else. Never met him which is a bit sad.

I've just checked. It does come from William Cowpers poems. But it's the cups that cheer.

jeni - that sounds like the poetry book we had at school. It was called 'The English Parnassus' and they gave me a copy as a prize when I left school.

Probably left over from our O level year.

I had the 'Oxford dictionary as my prize for science!

I think I still have the O level Eng Lit book with those poems in. hated Tam O'Shanter- still can't read anything with dialect written-with apostrophes and weird spelling as if we are too stupid to hear a voice in dialect.Must have been1959-1960 O level-JMB board. and i drink tea most of the day Assam Darjeeling and ceylon not china-obviously plotting someone,s downfall

NUJMB in 1960 I think!

Just looked. My dictionary says prize for science 1960-1961.

Did you do Macbeth and Churchills 'My Early Life' as well?

exactly those.

In which case you either took it very young or your profile page is wrong.

I did My Early Life, the Tempest and the Oxford Book of Narrative verse. I'm surprised it didn't put me off books for life.

I enjoyed the Churchill

Loathed it. All those bung no tales of the battle of Omdurman. And my father equally cross at the choice. It should have been H V Morton or Hobsbsbaum. Fat chance.

Bung ho? I typed gung ho.

Our choice was between Major Barbara and the Churchill. They asked me which the science form would prefer. I chose the Churchill and for the first time ever there was 100% pass rate in the science form.

That figures! All those facts...

I still quote his comment when he dislocated his shoulder!

I'm really, really, impressed!

Is that what he said?

I have no memory of the comment having removed the whole experience of 'doing' the book from my brain. And I just googled it and still couldn't find it. So it can't have been that memorable.

I only know the bit where he escaped from the school in Pretoria during the Boer War.....and THAT is only because of research as to what was going on and how a distant cousin of mine (British) was found and stopped by the Boers - at a place out in the country, on the route Churchill took to get away.
The escape was in all the papers, and I think my cousin (who was 14 at the time) got separated from his family in the war, and tried to copy Churchill, as it was the next week!

Not generally interested in battle-type history, but a connection makes it feel different. I wouldn't bother to read the book, I don't think.