[gregsq]

I’m curious about this and will ask my mother who picked it up from hers, and she from hers and so on. I’ve even used it myself as a kind of victorian throwback pleasantry. It’s a meme rather than a mimic I’m sure. Just being polite when served by those close, together with a whole lot of other cultural context. A descendant on her side had a fruit and veges shop in old Brighton when the royal pavillion attracted aristocrats and so on. Later in deptford, bombed during WWII and surrounded by relative poverty. Stiff upper lip and lower class manners mixed with stoicism. I’d look in the east end and Kent for English context.