Capt. Ridley’s Shooting Party, the interesting thing is that I grew up on a farm (in northwest Ohio) and learned to say “breakfast - dinner - supper” for the three meals. From college on, though, I heard other people saying “breakfast - lunch - dinner” for the three meals and eventually changed over to saying that.
Tea Rooms used to be everywhere and were the equivalent of a modern day coffee shop (like Starbucks). There used to be a famous chain of tea rooms in London called ‘Lyons Corner Houses’. You can often see them in old films or period dramas as a place for genteel women to rest their feet during a shopping trip (see Brief Encounter for an example).
There’s a famous English tea rooms by the Spanish Steps in Rome called Babbingtons which was started by a pair of English women in the nineteenth century to cater to English tourists desperate for a taste of home. It’s still going strong and is very popular with Roman politicians and intelligentsia. It’s a weird place, liking stepping through a timewarp into Victorian England right in the heart of Rome.
Tea Rooms have fallen out of fashion with the growing coffee shop industry and the cultural shift which means women can now go to pubs instead without attracting abuse. As others have said, they’re still popular in tourist spots (with both foreigners and British alike). Sometimes a sit down with a nice pot of tea (NEVER a limp bag in a luke warm mug of water ::shudder:
and a cake is just the ticket after a hard day’s sightseeing.
I’ve read the book and I’m sure the “My Tea Is Rich” name was explained as a pun on “My Tailor Is Rich”, which is said to be a stock phrase in English textbooks at French schools. Like “le singe est dans l’arbre” in French textbooks in England (see Eddie Izzard).
So, similar to what Nava said, but the phrase seems subtly different.
As an aside, my work schedule has caused me to start eating four meals a day, which I call breakfast, lunch, supper (around 4:30) and dinner (8:00 or 9:00). I’m American, though, so the only tea I have is with breakfast.
Correct, I don’t think many people here are aware of this distinction. When you say “afternoon tea”, you mean just tea, possibly with toast or biscuits, right? And “full tea” is tea with with the above but also various small kinds of sandwiches, eggs, and so on?" If so, most Americans probably think the reverse is true. I’m pretty sure there’s a scene in Brideshead Revisited where an elaborate full tea is served to the guests, buffet style, when they return from the hunt. There’s also a Wodehouse story where Bertie serves a full tea to the local Marxist revolutionary cell, although IIRC Bingo Little dictated the menu, possibly in an effort to reach their working class hearts.
I think this is common in farm areas here. Was “dinner” the biggest meal of the day?
A sit-down with a nice pot of tea and a cake after a hard day sounds heavenly. Doing so in a quaint old-lady tea room sounds doubly heavenly. That would be my dream job in my retirement, running a nice tea room , cranking out the lemon-berry mini-muffins, the cinnamon scones… Booze, Prozac, pot, coke, ecstasy, and speed are probably more hip. Let us oldsters have our nice sit-down with tea and cake! (actually, the last time I was at a tea room, it was a Starbucks, and I had chai tea and poppyseed cake, and it was a very nice experience).
We have Tea Rooms in America, in Britain I understand they are called “Cottages” 
You’re getting a bit confused. There’s no such thing as ‘full tea’. There’s:
Afternoon tea: this is the full-on posh meal you’ve seen in Brideshead: cucumber sandwiches, cakes, variety of teas, served around 4pm, invented by some Duchess I believe, who thought there was too big a gap between lunch at 1pm and dinner at 8pm. Historically associated with the upper classes (who else could stop for a meal at 4pm?), now the preserve of big hotels.
High tea: Usually just going by the name of ‘tea’, served around 6pm as an early dinner, commonly (historically) associated with the working classes. Might not even include an actual cup of tea.
Neither of these terms should be confused with a cup of tea, which is just a cup of tea.
I’m parched, put the kettle on luv.
I seem to be the first to mention Cream Tea which is tea with scones that come with devonshire/clotted cream, and jam. It isn’t as involved or expensive as Afternoon Tea. Is this a regionalism? I’ve only ever been to tea shops in Yorkshire.
No, it’s universal. Particularly great in Devon or Cornwall, obviously.
As ridiculous an idea as Starbucks here in the US.
I tried that and it didn’t make any more sense. I know what the words mean, but it doesn’t make sense (to me) to call tea “rich”.
Quoth Wallenstein:
Greasy spoons aren’t unique to England. We have much the same sort of establishments here in the US, and call them by the same name. Except, of course, blue-collar workers would get a cup of coffee in ours, not tea.
Seems kind of odd to have a food-related term that actually means the same thing on both sides of the pond, doesn’t it?
EEEE! The preciousness! I have some PG Tips Tea in my pantry!.. OK, I’m throwing a tea party for me and the cat while we’re snowed in here!.. Do have another potted pilchard on a scone, Fluffy!
You can order tea just about anywhere in the U.S., but what you’ll get is a cup, full of hot water and a teabag on the side. Most people here don’t understand the importance of pouring the boiling water directly on the leaves and letting them steep before it goes into the cup. Moreover, the cup you are given is very apt to be paper, unless you are at a sit-down restaurant, and IMO the subtle flavors of good tea don’t stand up well to that.
Dunno if you’re whooshing me here, but I know of only two common usages of the term ‘cottage’:
[ul]
[li]A small house, often with a thatched roof[/li][li]A public toilet frequented by homosexuals[/li][/ul]
Didn’t mean to intentionally whoosh, although the thought did enter the back of my mind that some might be whooshed.
ETA: thus the smiley :o