… those in the middle and upper stations of life, tea preparation was undertaken by the hands of the ranking women of the family, who made the tea-drink in the presence of the company assembled to drink it. While servants would undertake the … 276, 300, 323, 395, 488, 536, 606) in The Spectator reinforce this trope of the convivial tea-table discussion, at which family members and friends would read The Spectator while they consumed tea and bread and butter. In The Spectator , the …