Rosie lee

I’ll put the kettle on and make us a cup of Rosie Lee.

"'Ow about a drop o' Rosie Lee?" said Mr. Joby Jackson. He was very found of this queer rhyming slang, most of which must be omitted from any record of his talk because it is incomprehensible to ordinary people. Even Mr. Oakroyd, […] was sometimes puzzled. But he was not bewildered, of course, by any mention of the famous Rosie, and he was more than ready for a drink of tea.

Commandos march better on tea than on water. This fact has been demonstrated by an official test recently carried out in Great Britain. […] The "water platoons" made good use of their water bottles, but the "tea platoon" was the only one to finish the course intact. Which only goes to show that there must be something in the soldier's traditional liking for "a cup of rosie lee."

'Sit in here a minute,' he says to them. 'I'll go and make the Rosy Lee.' When he had made the tea he brings it in, gets out the cards, and they start to play, carrying on until it is about half past three.

“[…] Nice cup of Rosie Lee?” he asked, using the Cockney tradition of rhyming slang.

They all nodded sagely in agreement and carried on puffing away on their fags and drinking their Rosie Lees.

Seated at our map-covered dining table, Vicks and I drank umpteen cups of Rosy Lee as we worked out the best route to take me across seven provinces in Canada and through twenty-six US states, following the coastline as much as possible.