a note to earth mama - if you come to the states and order "tea" - you will get iced tea - and if you are in the south you will get iced tea with about a half pound of sugar added. So Americans order "hot tea" so they don't get the iced variety - not because they think it will be served tepid.

To Mary - <BR> <BR>I know that. <BR> <BR>-Mama <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

What is the cost for tea at Brown's?? Also, do we have to be "dressy" -- or can we get away with our sight-seeing clothes? (nice but casual?/walking shoes)

Earth Momma and Mary - <BR> <BR>I remember having to ask for "hot tea with cold milk on the side" in the US. <BR>

<BR>Yeah? Was it actually hot, then?

Sylvia - most people get weekends off!

THERE ARE NO DUMB QUESTIONS.<BR>THERE ARE ONLY DUMB PEOPLE ASKING QUESTIONS.

ttt for Peter

Don't be so hard on us, in USA we have to distinguish between hot and cold tea because cold (iced) tea is so prevalent. A little tolerance of other people's ways would be nice on both sides of the pond.

These distinctions come from another time (pre WWII when most middle class families had servants). In my mother's day (1920s+ and among my older relations when I visited in the 1950s), upper middle class families had tea (bread, butter, jam, biscuits--plain and chocolate--and sometimes cake) at 4 and dinner (main meal) at 8. As a thoroughly North American child I was horrified on visiting some of my father's grander relations to find that children had a somewhat bigger tea (boiled eggs and cereal in addition to the above) and didn't eat with the grownups except on special occasions. Though I think that by that time the nursery rule of "butter or jam on your bread, but not both) had disappeared. <BR> <BR>In working class, particularly rural families, the main meal was at noon (dinner) and tea was a fairly substantial evening meal. <BR> <BR>High tea is a bit harder to define, but was often tea that included some elements of a main meal and was eaten on the cooks' day off or when the family was on holiday.