In these enlightened times, we tend to take for granted the existence of a plethora of meals to suit all lifestyles and personal tastes, but only a few short centuries ago, our ancestors knew of only two: breakfast and dinner.
Over the course of the 18th century, dinner grew later and later, until it was typically served well after 8pm. The enormous gap between breakfast and dinner was only partially filled by a small and poorly-understood new meal called “luncheon” which would eventually evolve into the modern-day lunch, but was then a meagre event consisting of a small amount of bread and ale. Into this mid-afternoon vacuum, and the annals of history, stepped Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford. She inferred, through reason alone, the existence of a fourth meal, previously unknown to humanity, which she dubbed “afternoon tea”.
Early experimental afternoon teas were conducted under great secrecy in the Blue Drawing Room at Woburn Abbey. Once a safe formula was arrived at, selected members of the gentry were invited to public demonstrations, at which they learned of small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches and “walking the fields”. Later generations took this last part rather too far, and promenaded about so enthusiastically that they had to have a second “high tea” afterwards to recover.
The modern decline in promenading as an amateur sport has led us to return to an afternoon tea closer to the original. When we take it, we all remember Anna, Duchess of Bedford, without whom afternoon tea might never have been discovered.
Isaac, you’re a treasure trove of information! I will have to use this snippet in my ‘Heroines in History’ lecture entitled ‘heroines in the kitchen’ - permission to quote please?
Permission granted. With all due respect to the Duchess, though, I suspect she spent more time in the drawing room than the actual kitchen.