Drinking tea? The thin end of the wedge?

Probably left over from our O level year.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

jeni I don't get it....

....my granny joined the 'Band of Hope' in the 1890s....temperance really was a big thing, there were even temperance steamboats!

Cowper. The post comes home?

Googled it and found this:

"The cup that cheers but does not inebriate": Slogan promoting tea as an alternative to alcohol, mid-19th century; associated with the temperance movement.

My Dad used to say 'Tea- the cup that cheers but does not inebriate'. I have no idea where he got this homily. Was it perhaps an early advert?

Is the ski slope still there? I know there were rows of beautiful terraced houses in Newcastle that were due to be demolished a while back. It's such a shame.

Oldham is a bit better off crimson. Still lots of rows of terraced houses, but not slums. In the district I know, this side of Manchester, there has been lots of renovation of run-down houses and the streets are kept looking neat.

Sounds like the Oldham that I knew in the 70's. Wonder if that's the same now? Some things in the article were true; it is addictive [don't know what I'd do if I couldn't have my cuppa] and does cause social unrest in that it is a social drink/social occasion. The coffee houses of the somethingorother century were a concern due to the revolutionary unrest they created. Were the middle class women who were against the poor drinking tea still allowed to drink it? I have a cuppa first thing [it has to be tea in the morning, and then have to have a coffee..from then on it's tea all day . Does anyone remember the first part of that Bill Bryson book where he says that, no matter what life of the English weather throws at us we're happy if we can sit down and have a cup of tea . No one understands us like Bill does....

Alie there are parts of Wigan that Orwell would still find the same! Lots of slum houses left to go to rack and ruin by private owners who bought them up in the 80s and never had money to renovate them (gradually being seized by compulsory purchase). There are women in scarves and clogs in Leigh and Ince, who sit on their doorsteps drinking tea and chatting. Who knows what they must be plotting?

Must go back to Orwell - 'Wigan Pier' has a lot about tea and tramps, if I remember...

...and about 1930s slums, horrifying, sounds like 100 years before.
I guess if you were a woman in a Victorian slum, the cup of tea may have been your one bright spot.

Absolutely feetlebaum re its safety.
Was it Orwell who talks about the working man, taking a break, getting a little fire going and brewing up? Terrible impact on productivity no doubt .
Of course in the 19th c slums of London there was terrible alcohol abuse - cheap gin. Puts tea into perspective I'd say.

We need a HISTORY section! (plug plug).
Thhis is fascinating and throws light on something I had wondered about ie when did the masses including my ancestors in Ireland start drinking it!

feetlebaum, good points. Also - oh dear, women were getting together to drink it!

I like the idea of being a revolting peasant each time I have a cup of tea.

Weak tea (Ceylon). I have one large mug at breakfast, using leaf tea because it's more economical for me. However, for the rest of the day I usually drink red bush tea because it's caffeine-free and I don't take kindly to caffeine.

Historically the good thing about tea drinking was that like ale, tea was made with boiling water, and thus relatively disease free... and of course it was non-alcoholic. Water was very dangerous stuff unless it had been boiled.

I drink one mug of tea in the afternoon... Assam, no tea-bag, in a small white tea-pot... no milk (ech!) and two hermestas... you see I met up with a school friend who had spent his working years as a tea planter, and he enthused me!

In the mornings it's black coffee, Colombian ... between the coffee and the tea I drink about eight cups too... but NO MILK!

Only 2 nellie you lightweight you.
Wondering if I drink even more tea (which is a lot) might I then become reckless and uncontrollable. Would probably make DH's day!

Well I am clearly in moral decline. I am on Mug2 and its only 9am. Plenty more mugs of tea to get though today.

Oh dear, I've just squandered a tea bag, and now I'm going to squander another one!