What a pity it's not a more engaging read. Timely, though -- our local radio station just did a mini-broadcast program on the anniversary of the first Assam tea auction in London on Jan. 1, 1839, which was the first major step in establishing a market for Indian-grown tea in lieu of (or ultimately, alongside) the Chinese teas that had previously held a monopoly in the British market.

http://todayinbritishhistory.com/assam-tea-first-auctioned-london-10-january-1839/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Alexander_Bruce
http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/information/INFOnl_V19N4_article_page1.asp

Thanks for the links TA - in some circumstances it is the outside reading that a book leads one to that is the more gratifying

Yes - I would read a biography of Charles Alexander Bruce. Don't fancy the one he wrote about tea.

Is there one? It looks like the thing about tea that he himself wrote really is something rather more for special interests ...

Not one I could find - now :there: is an opening for a historian searching for a profile to investigate

Laugh on l'il lady, we will wait...
xx