I must say there is something to be said for concentrating on one book at a time. I've been making nice progress on my end of the year reading. I have actually been working on three books at the same time, but generally one of them will take precedence and I will grab that particular book most of the time. If I can whittle my pile to a more manageable size (and more importantly stick to it) I'll be very happy. I think I will always prefer to have several books on the go, but maybe not so many as sixteen! This tends to be a topic I return to again and again, but if I can stick to my plans I won't need to talk about it so often. Anyway, this week's book is M.J. Farrell's (Molly Keane) Young Entry. I've mentioned that this is a story I am struggling with. I think part of the problem is lack of continuity. Some books just lend themselves better to being picked up and put down. Others really need to be read in fewer sittings than I tend to grant them. I think this is the case with Young Entry. So this week it finally gets its due and I'll be reading the last half straight through.
So, as I slowly re-orient myself within this fictional Irish world, my attention was caught by this passage. I'm intrigued by the idea of daily tea, as this is something entirely foreign here in the US.
"In the dining-room an excellent tea was ready. Tea was a meal which Gus thoroughly understood. Therefore, on the white cloth-covered table (the fashion of bare mahogany did not prevail at Lingarry) were many good and pleasant things to eat. There were honey and blackberry jam; the butter--made daily--tasted of Devonshire cream. There was griddle bread, and little flat hot cakes that you might butter for yourself, as thickly as you pleased. A great fruit-cake gaped richly beneath its pent-house almond paste; and brandy snaps curled, thin as paper and a little greasy, on an old blue and white patterned plate. In the centre of the table a huge silver cup, engraved with a good horse's name, held late-flowering roses--quantities of them."
I wonder what the less wealthy folks had for tea. And I wonder if this is meant to be in lieu of what we call dinner. And is afternoon tea still a daily tradition? In any case it sounds yummy and I wish we had something similar here.