Generally provided by cheap
British hotels so that they don't need to serve you a PROPER breakfast.
A Continental Breakfast usually consists of some cheap freeze-dried
coffee, some sort of
stale pastry and perhaps an old,
soft biscuit if you're fortunate enough.
The name comes from the fact that Hoteliers wish you to believe that our "more culturaly refined" and "chic" Continental (note, European) cousins, eat this crap for breakfast themselves, and by eating it you can be JUST as cultured!
Predictably, if you ever happen to stay at a hotel on "The Continent", the chances of them serving you this rubbish are somewhere between silm and none.