Tags
Beer, Coffeehouses, Drink, Drugs, Jonas Hanway, Tea, William Cobbett
There were many reasons why a young man or woman might have turned to a life of crime and lewdness in eighteenth-century England. Heart-rending tales of orphaned children, abandoned lovers, destitution and failed ambitions fill the pages of contemporary memoirs, newspaper columns and court records. But for some, one of the prime suspects behind the nation’s idleness and vicious inclinations was quietly, steadily taking root in almost every street in the country. As it did, the nation as a whole risked become more and more debauched.
This terrible foreign invader encouraged young men to stay “a lurking in the bed” rather than earning an honest wage. It turned women to harlotry and insolence, caused atrocious child neglect, and was armed to carry everyone off to their grave a decade early. This enemy of virtue? Why, tea, of course.
Observing this apparent trend, philanthropist Jonas Hanway lamented that “Men seem to have lost their stature, and comliness; and women their beauty. Your very chambermaids have lost their bloom, I suppose by sipping tea.” But social reformer William Cobbett’s fevered rant about the moral and national implications of tea-drinking was even more vehement.
It must be evident to every one, that the practice of tea drinking must render the frame feeble and unfit to encounter hard labour or severe weather, while, as I have shown, it deducts from the means of replenishing the belly and covering the back. Hence succeeds a softness, an effeminacy, a seeking for the fireside, a lurking in the bed, and, in short, all the characteristics of idleness, for which, in this case, real want of strength furnishes an apology. The tea drinking fills the public house, makes the frequenting of it habitual, corrupts boys as soon as they are able to move from home, and does little less for the girls, to whom the gossip of the tea table is no bad preparatory school for the brothel… the girl that has been brought up merely to boil the tea kettle, and assist in the gossip inseparable from the practice, is a mere consumer of food, a pest to her employer, and a curse to her husband, if any man be so unfortunate as to fix his affections upon her.
In short, Cobbett viewed the plant ”as a destroyer of health, an enfeebler of the frame, an engenderer of effeminacy and laziness, a debaucher of youth and a maker of misery for old age.”
And the solution to this terrible moral poison? Every household brewing its own “good and wholesome Beer.” Obviously.
Any chance this was satire?
It seems a little strange to us, but no, this wasn’t. William Cobbett was a radical journalist, farmer and politician with some very strong views, but he was by no means alone in his attack on the poor defenceless tea plant.
As well as William Cobbett and Jonas Hanway, theologian John Wesley condemned tea as harmful for the body and soul, claiming that his own sufferings of a ‘Paralytic disorder’ were brought about by tea drinking. As with all novelty (and especially foreign) products – as tea was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – there were many who were genuinely suspicious of its effects.
You can find more about Hanway’s views here: http://bit.ly/9xgGPr
The blog quote is taken from Cobbett’s guide to prudent agricultural and domestic living, ‘Cottage Economy’. The full text is available here:
http://bit.ly/rBEGEF
E
Haha. Good old fashioned British hysteria.
This is the second example I’m aware of where something from the humour of Eric Idle turns out to be real. His film All You Need is Cash about The Rutles makes many references to tea as the fictional pop groups’ psychedelic drug of choice.
The other example is that in the same TV series (Rutland Weekend Television) he mocked the concept of “privatised prisons”, which went on to become a reality in the UK about a decade later.
Pingback: Monday Links from the Driving Seat vol. CI
To be fair, lurking in the bed with tea is one of my favourite pastimes! I’m guessing the call to beer brewing comes from nostalgia for the days before tea and coffee when beer and ale were typically drunk throughout the day?
I wonder how long we’d have to search to find a similar rant against the evils of Starbucks, with their triple mocha pumpkin whip latte double expresso cherry whatevers…. Their polyglot customer base, their instant satisfactionof practically any individual variation on the basic coffee. Pernicious influences lurk on every hand–every hand, I tell you…
Tea has become so synonymous with British culture, and it health benefits are now touted worldwide, its very surprising to see that, once upon a time, tea was so high on the naughty list. It would be interesting to see how attitudes towards tea changed over time. Thanks for posting!