Tea party time

REMEMBER those carefree bygone days when one always kept ‘something in the tin’, just in case some friends dropped by.

In country houses the table was religiously laid for tea every afternoon at 4.30, white linen or perhaps a cut lace tablecloth, silver tea pot, delicate china cups, and a little jug of cream as well as milk.

For children in particular, afternoon tea was a serious business, I remember many such outings and the strict protocol. My brothers and sisters and I were dressed up in our finest clothes. I got to wear a smocked dress and one of my angora boleros - I had two which Mummy had painstakingly knit for me from a pattern in Women’s Weekly - one was pale green, the other a soft shade of baby pink. I adored wearing my bolero and my black patent shoes. I felt like a princess.