Lady Tavistock

Lady Tavistock, wife of the 14th Duke of Bedford, takes afternoon tea in the saloon of Woburn Abbey, Bedfordhire, seven generations after Anna, wife of the seventh Duke, invented this British institution in 1841. As dinner in fashionable society became later and later, the afternoon left the Duchess with a “sinking feeling”, and to raise her blood sugar level began to drink tea with small dishes of food at 5 o’clock. The custom caught on throughout British society.