In Holland
people even hung Delft plaques on the walls of their stables. It was a
new thought to have anything about which was not for actual use."
"I should think that with all this Chinese and Delft ware to copy from
the English would have tried making earthenware of their own,"
speculated Theo.
"They did," was Mr. Croyden's prompt reply, "and of that I will tell
you some other day. But there is one interesting fact in connection
with these early tea sets. Remember that if ever you see in a museum
or private house a tea set which you are told came over in the
_Mayflower_ nothing of the sort could have happened. The Pilgrims
landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, and it was not until from 1660 to
1770 that tea and tea sets became general in England. By that time the
Pilgrim Fathers, and more especially the Pilgrim Mothers, were far
across the ocean."
Mr. Croyden moved toward the door.
"Some one may have brought tea sets to them but they never carried
them in the _Mayflower_," he concluded. "Now I have talked too much
for one morning, and it is lunch time. Listen, there is the horn! And
see, Theo, the rain has ceased and the sun come out."
"I hadn't thought of the weather," smiled Theo.
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