In a wealthy 19th-century English household, the day revolved around four meals: an early breakfast, a light luncheon at midday, afternoon tea (tea and small sweets around five o'clock), and dinner, the main meal served late in the evening. For a convalescent like Harriet, this rhythm followed a spare diet where broth and tea held a central place.

Two pillars of the English table and of Harriet's fragile daily life: strong tea, drunk abundantly throughout the day, and beef tea, the clarified meat broth that Victorian medicine prescribed for delicate chests.