Coffee, Tea, or Pee?

In Georgian times, dinner among the 'better' classes was practically an all-day affair and could last up to five hours. Without the advantage of indoor plumbing, some upper-class hosts took it upon themselves to provide a variety of chamber pots on the sideboard of their dining room, encouraging peeing at the table. François de la Rochefoucauld, exiled to England after the French Revolution, was bewildered by this “most indecent” practice. He wrote extensively of the practice in his 1784 memoir, A Frenchman in England.