The Antient Art of Tea Chi (Chai Style)

As you may have gathered by now, we Ragged Ramblers are dedicated to the mastery of a number of arts: parkour, eating cake, historic interpretation - and now, Tea Chi. 


The origins of this hitherto most secretive of practices are shrouded in the mysteries of time (and other such clichés). As a result, there are a number of different 'foundation stories' which seek to explain this antiquarian art. The one we find most persuasive runs thus...


One of the oldest statutes of The Ragged Society of Antiquarian Ramblers states that a Rambler's cake is sacrosanct. Under no circumstances should a Member surrender his or her cake, for fear of being black-balled. It is said that one summer, time out of mind, a party of Ragged Ramblers had stopped to picnic somewhere in the north of Suffolk. Now, these are wild parts, and it is therefore no surprise what happened next. 


The legendary co-founder of our Society, Dawson Bulwer-Rant, was partaking of cake when an impertinent young pup called Phileas Acorn, seeing Bulwer-Rant bring his tea to his lips, decided to reach across and snatch a slice of delicious Fickle Cake from the plate of the aforementioned antiquarian. Chroniclers say that what followed defies description. With that deficiency duly noted, imagine an uncoiling of energy; a fluid whirl of movement and a scream, followed by a flurry of tumbling arms and limbs, as the poor Acorn was bowled clean over by Dawson Bulwer-Rant - who stood triumphantly, still with tea in hand. This was the beginning of what later became known at the art of Tea Chi (literally, 'tea energy'). Over time, generations of Ragged Ramblers have passed on the lethal form of picnic defence, and can, on rare occasions, be found practicing the 'forms'. 


This is what we share with you here...


Huzzah!