The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #80050 Message #1457931
Posted By: HuwG
11-Apr-05 - 09:08 AM
Thread Name: BS: Can we discuss the Class system in UK?
Subject: RE: BS: Can we discuss the Class system in UK?
An oddity with the "passing the port" routine. In British Army messes, the water glasses are removed from the table before the port is served.
This dates from the eighteenth century, when there were Stuart pretenders to the throne (James, son of the deposed James II, "the Old Pretender", and his son Prince Charles Edward, "the Young Pretender".)
The practice was adopted so that officers, when drinking the loyal toast, could not wave their port glasses over the water glasses, and thereby drink to "the King over the water" i.e. the pretender.