TEA FOR ROYALTY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 15, 9 April 1892, Page 379

TEA FOR ROYALTY.

The tea consumed by the Royal household in England is always bought at a quaint, old fashioned shop in Pall Mall, and has been bought there during the reigns of Queen Victoria's five predecessors. It costs 5s 4d a imund. and was for a long while known as • Earl Grey’s Mixture,' this nobleman having recommended this particular mixture to her Majesty. When a dinner is given at Windsor or Buckingham Palace, fish to the extent of fifty pounds’ worth is ordered ; but for an ordinary family dinner three kinds of fish are put on the table, whiting being almost invariably one of them. A sirloin of beef is cooked every day and is put on the sideboard cold for luncheon. The Queen takes after her dinner one water biscuit and a piece of Cheddar cheese -, the Prince of Wales ;eats a piece of Gorgonzola with a crust of home made bread. The tea, the cheese, and the Royal bed are always taken along whenever the Queen travels. Her Majesty's wine, which is well known to be incomparable, is kept in the cellars of St. James's Palace, and is sent in basketfuls of three dozen to wherever she may be, this being done more for the guests and household than herself, as when alone she drinks onlyvery weak whisky and water with her meals, by her physician's orders. At banquets, however, she takes two glasses of Burgundy. The clerk of the Royal kitchen, who always carves, receives £7OO per annum, the head chef the same salary, and the confectioners £3OO and £250. .Vetc I’orX: Tribune.