In the preface to a recent issue of a logic puzzle magazine, I came across this quote from a 1925 paperback called "The Humour of Bulls and Blunders". It aparantly originated as an advert in a London newspaper (but that may be apocryphal)..

"If this should meet the eye of Emma D..., who absented herself last Wednesday from her father's house, she is implored to return, when she will be received with undiminished affection by her most heart-broken parents. If nothing can persuade her to listen to their joint appeal, should she be determined to bring their grey hairs with sorrow to their grave, should she never mean to revisit a home where she has passed so many happy years, it is at least expected, if she is not totally lost to all sense of propriety, that she will, without a moment's further delay, send back the key to the tea-caddy."

:-)

(Just wanted to share..)

Cheers,
Diolma

Charming, and very very English :-)

i suppose the family jewels were kept in the tea caddy?  ;)

What made me Laugh Out Loud was the sudden change of subject in that very last phrase - from the rather over-blown (but very elegantly phrased) prelude of concern over the vanished daughter and the suffering they were going through on her behalf  to the real reason that they wanted to contact her. (The English , even more then than now, love their tea!)

Oh and I just noticed - I  should have said "apparently" in that 1st post ("aparantly" is not a valid word), but it's too late to change it now.. I knew that then; I know it now. But still I gorn and went and dunnit.  (Must learn to proof-read my posts..)

Hmm. Bedtime..

Cheers,
Diolma

heh heh heh!  Quite! Rather!

The british and their tea, Americans and their coffee.  A truely Dickensian appeal. I love it.  ;c)

Diloma, if you keep making that face, it's going to stick that way. ;cP

mdb

This sounds like it came from an earlier time (than 1925). Tea was once a valuable commodity - hence the rise of the Tea-Clippers like the Cutty Sark - and as such was kept locked away from the servants etc. 

And yes, we British regard tea in a special way. It is more than just a hot drink. One was said to 'take tea' when in doing so was a social occasion. Today a Brit's first thought after a traumatic event is to have a 'cuppa'.  But why should Brits be single out for their preferred beverage? Mboncher mentioned the Americans and their coffee. But the Japanese have had tea ceremonies for hundreds of years, the Aussies have their 4X, the Russians their Vodka, the Kazaks their fermented horse urine. In fact, every country in the world can be identified by its quaint traditions and affinities for a particular beverage. 

Here on Mars we pride ourselves on our quaint tradition of sabotaging mobile robot explorers with distilled water....

I say old chap that is just so typically British, don't you know.

Oh and BTW, further to Brysters comments, we actually have a tea caddy, which if opened by the uninitated will tell the tale. It is laquered, and if you don't know how to do it then when the lid is replaced the pattern does not match up, thus making it obvious that someone has been pilfering the tea. Cunning, what!

Quote - The british and their tea, Americans and their coffee.  A truely Dickensian appeal. I love it.  ;c)

Diloma, if you keep making that face, it's going to stick that way. ;cP

mdb

Americans and their coffee, man i can't believe how many Australians drink coffee. I am typing this while drinking a hot coffee in a cup that can hold 485ml. I a good boy now i only have 7-10 cups of coffee a day. Not bad for a british person that drank tea most of his life