opponents. After the Great Plague the popularity of tobacco and snuff
increased, for during the time of the terrible visitation both had been
largely used as disinfectants. There is a curious entry in Thomas Hearne's
Diary, 1720-21, bearing on this theme. He writes as follows under date of
January 21:--"I have been told that in the last great plague in London
none that kept tobacconists' shops had the plague. It is certain that
smoaking was looked upon as a most excellent preservative. In so much that
even children were obliged to smoak. And I remember that I heard formerly
Tom Rogers, who was yeoman beadle, say that when he was that year when the
plague raged a schoolboy at Eton, all the boys in the school were obliged
to smoak in the school every morning, and that he was never whipped so
much in his life as he was one morning for not smoaking." Pepys says in
his Diary on June 7, 1665:--"The hottest day that ever I felt in my life.
This day, much against my will, I did in Drury Lane see two or three
houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and 'Lord have mercy upon
us!' writ there; which was a sad sight to me, being the first of the kind
that to my remembrance I ever saw. It put me into ill-conception of myself
and my smell, so that I was forced to buy some roll tobacco to smell and
chew, which took apprehension." Another impetus to the habit of
snuff-taking was given in 1702. Our Fleet was under the command of Sir
George Rooke, and it is recorded that at Port Saint Mary, near Cadiz,
several thousand barrels of choice Spanish snuff were captured. At Vigo on
the homeward voyage more native snuff was obtained, and found its way to
England, instead of the Spanish market, as it was originally intended. The
snuff was sold at the chief English ports for the benefit of the officers
and men. In not a few instances waggon-loads were disposed of at fourpence
per pound. It was named Vigo snuff, and the popularity of the ware, its
cheapness, and novelty were the means of its coming into general use. In
no part of the world did it become and remain more popular than in North
Britain. A volume published in London in 1702, entitled "A Short Account
of Scotland," without the author's name, but apparently by a military
officer, contains some interesting information on the social life of the
people. We gather from this work that the chief stimulant of the Scotch at
this period was snuff. "They are fond of tobacco," it is stated, "but
more from the sneesh-box [snuff-box] than the pipe. And they made it so
necessary that I have heard some of them say that, should their bread come
in competition with it, they would rather fast than their sneesh should be
taken away. Yet mostly it consists of the coarsest tobacco, dried by the
fire, and pounded in a little engine after the form of a tap, which they
carry in their pockets, and is both a mill to grind and a box to keep it
in." At social gatherings the snuff-mull was constantly passed round, and
we are told that each guest left traces of its use on the table, on his
knees, the folds of his dress, and on the floor. The preacher's voice was
impaired with excessive indulgence in snuff.
Long before the English visitor had written his book on Scotland, attempts
had been made to prohibit snuff-taking in church. At the Kirk Session of
St. Cuthbert's, held on June 18, 1640, it was decided that every
snuff-taker in church be amerced in "twenty shillings for everie falt."
Under date of April 11, 1641, it is stated in the Kirk Session records of
Soulton as follows:--"Statute with consent of the ministers and elders,
that every one that takes snuff in tyme of Divine Service shall pay 6s.
8d., and give one public confession of his fault." At Dunfermline, the
Kirk Session had this matter under consideration, and the bellman was
directed "to tak notice of those who tak the sneising tobacco in tyme of
Divine Service, and to inform concerning them." A writer in a popular
periodical, in a chapter on "The Divine Weed," makes a mistake, we think,
presuming people smoked in church in bygone days. "At one period in the
history of tobacco," says the contributor, "smoking was so common that it
was actually practised in church." Previous to the visit of James the
First to the University of Cambridge, in 1615, the Vice-Chancellor issued
a notice to the students, which enjoined that "Noe graduate, scholler, or
student of this Universitie presume to take tobacco in Saint Marie's
Church, uppon payne of finall expellinge the Universitie." The taking of
tobacco doubtless means using it in the form of snuff and not smoking it
in a pipe.
Later, and perhaps at the period under notice, a strong feeling prevailed
against smoking in the public streets. In the records of the Methwold
Manor, Norfolk, is an entry in the court books dated October 4, 1659, as
follows:--"Wee agree that any person that is taken smookeing tobacco in
the street, forfeit one shilling for every time so taken, and it shall be
put to the uses aforesaid (that is to the use of the towne). We present
Nicholas Barber for smoking in the street, and do amerce him one
shilling." At a parish meeting held at Winteringham, on January 6, 1685,
it was resolved:--"None shall smoke tobacco in the streets upon paine of
two shillings for every default." Schoolmasters were forbidden to smoke.
In the rules of Chigwell School, founded in 1629, only fourteen years
after the visit of James to Cambridge, it is stated:--"The master must be
a man of sound religion, neither Papist nor Puritan, of a grave behaviour,
and sober and honest conversation, no tippler, or haunter of alehouses,
and no puffer of tobacco."
We may come to the conclusion from the facts we have furnished, that if
persons were not permitted to smoke in the street, it is quite certain
they would not be allowed to do so in the house of prayer.
Preachers of all sections of the religious world delighted in a pinch of
snuff. Sneezing was heard in the highest and humblest churches, and it
even made St. Peter's at Rome echo. The practice so excited the ire of
Pope Innocent the Twelfth that he made an effort in 1690 to stop it in
his churches, and "solemnly excommunicated all who should dare to take
snuff." Tyerman, in his "Life of Wesley," tells us the great trouble the
famous preacher had with his early converts. "Many of them were absolutely
enslaved to snuff; some drank drams, &c., to remedy such evils, the
preachers were enjoined on no account to take snuff, or to drink drams
themselves; and were to speak to any one they saw snuffing in sermon time,
and to answer the pretence that drams cured the colic and helped
digestion." Mr. Wesley cautioned a preacher going to Ireland against
snuff, unless by order of a physician, declaring that no people were in
such blind bondage to the silly, nasty, dirty custom as were the Irish. It
is stated so far did Irishmen carry their love of snuffing, that it was
customary, when a wake was on, to put a plate full of snuff upon the dead
man's, or woman's stomach, from which each guest was expected to take a
pinch upon being introduced to the corpse.
In the earlier days of snuff-taking, people generally ground their own
snuff by rubbing roll tobacco across a small grater, usually fixed inside
the snuff-box. We find in old-time writings many allusions to making
snuff from roll tobacco. In course of time snuff was flavoured with rich
essences, and scented snuffs found favour with the ladies. The man of
refinement prided himself on his taste for perfumed powder. We find it
stated in Fairholt's book on "Tobacco," that in the reign of William III.
the beaux carried canes with hollow heads, that they might the more
conveniently inhale a few grains through the perforations, as they
sauntered in the fashionable promenades. Women quickly followed the lead
of men in snuffing, in spite of satire in the _Spectator_ and other papers
of the period. The list of famous snuff-takers of the olden time is a long
one, and only a few can be noticed here. Queen Charlotte heads the roll.
She was persistent in the practice, and her unfilial and rude sons called
her "Old Snuff." Captain Gronow, when a boy at Eton, saw the Queen in
company with the King taking an airing on the Terrace at Windsor, and
relates "that her royal nose was covered with snuff both within and
without." Mrs. Siddons, "the queen of tragedy," largely indulged in the
use of snuff, both on and off the stage, even while taking her more
important characters. Mrs. Jordan, another "stage star," a representative
of the comic muse, obtained animation from frequent use of snuff. Mrs.
Unwin, the friend of Cowper, was extremely fond of it, and so was the
poet, yet he was not a smoker. On snuff he wrote as follows:--
"The pungent, nose-refreshing weed,
Which whether pulverised it gain
A speedy passage to the brain,
Or whether touched with fire it rise
In circling eddies to the skies,
Does thought more quicken and refine
Than all the breath of all the Nine."
Pope, in "The Rape of the Lock," refers to ladies with their snuff-boxes
always handy, and the fair Belinda found hers particularly useful in the
battle she waged:--
"See, fierce Belinda on the baron flies
With more than usual lightning in her eyes;
And this bred lord, with manly strength endued,
She with one finger and a thumb subdued.
Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew
A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw;
The gnomes direct, to every atom just,
The pungent grains of titillating dust.
Sudden with startling tears each eye o'erflows,
And the high dome re-echoes to his nose."
Napoleon's legacy to the famous Lady Holland was a snuff-box, and Moore
celebrated the gift in a verse written while he was in Paris in 1821:--
"Gift of the Hero, on his dying day,
To her who pitying watch'd, for ever nigh;
Oh, could he see the proud, the happy ray,
This relic lights up in her generous eye,
Sighing, he'd feel how easy 'tis to pay
A friendship all his kingdoms could not buy."
Amongst ladies we have to include the charming Clarinda, a friend of
Robert Burns, on whom he wrote when obliged to leave her:--
"She, the fair sun of all her sex,
Has blest my glorious day,
And shall, a glimmering planet, fix
My worship to its ray."
[Illustration: PARTAKING OF THE PUNGENT PINCH.]
She was much addicted to the use of snuff, more especially towards the
closing years of her life, and to the last she was famous for her singular
sprightliness in conversation. Dr. Deering wrote, about the end of the
first half of the eighteenth century, a history of Nottingham, and in it
he relates how ladies, enjoying their tea, between each dish regaled their
nostrils with a pinch or two of snuff. The snuff-boxes carried by them
were usually costly, and generally elegant in form. David Garrick gave his
wife a gold snuff-box. George Barrington, the celebrated pickpocket and
author, stole from Prince Orloff a snuff-box, set with brilliants, valued
at L30,000. Barrington was transported to Botany Bay, and at the opening
of Sydney Theatre, January 16, 1796, Young's tragedy, _The Revenge_, was
performed by convicts, and a prologue from Barrington's pen contained this
passage:--
"From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come,
Though not with much _eclat_, or beat of drum;
True patriots we, for, be it understood,
We left our country for our country's good.
No private views disgraced our generous zeal,
What urged our travels was our country's weal;
And none will doubt but that our emigration
Has proved most useful to the British nation."
In the olden time it was customary for the English Court to present to an
Ambassador on his return home a gold snuff-box, and only in late years has
this practice been discontinued. George IV. made a fraudulent display of
snuff-taking; he carried an empty box, and pretended to draw from it
pinches and apply them to his nose. The great Napoleon could not endure
smoking, but filled his waistcoat pocket with snuff, and partook of
prodigious quantities. Nelson enjoyed his snuff, and his snuff-box finds a
place among his relics at Greenwich. Literary men and dramatists figure
in imposing numbers amongst snuff-takers. Dryden enjoyed snuff, and did
not object to share the luxury with others. A favourite haunt of his was
Will's Coffee-house in Bow Street, Covent Garden, where he was met by the
chief wits of the time. In the "London Spy," by Ned Wright, it is related
that a parcel of raw, second-rate beaux and wits were conceited if they
had but the honour to dip a finger and thumb into Mr. Dryden's snuff-box.
Addison, Bolingbroke, Congreve, Swift, and Pope were snuff-takers. Dr.
Samuel Johnson carried large supplies in his waistcoat pocket, and his
friend Boswell thus praised it:--
"Oh snuff! our fashionable end and aim!
Strasburg, Rappee, Dutch, Scotch,
Whate'er thy name;
Powder celestial! quintescence divine!
New joys entrance my soul while thou art mine."
Arkbuckle, another Scottish poet, author of many humorous and witty poems,
wrote in 1719 as follows:--
"Blest be his shade, may laurels ever bloom,
And breathing sweets exhale around his tomb,
Whose penetrating nostril taught mankind
First how by snuff to rouse the sleeping mind."
The following lines are by Robert Leighton, a modern Scotch poet of
recognised ability:--
THE SNUFFIE AULD MAN.
"By the cosie fireside, or the sun-ends o' gavels,
The snuffie auld bodie is sure to be seen;
Tap, tappin' his snuff-box, he snifters and sneevils,
And smachers the snuff frae his mou' to his een.
Since tobacco cam' in, and the snuffin' began,
The hasna been seen sic a snuffie auld man.
His haurins are dozen'd, his een sair bedizen'd,
And red round the lids as the gills o' a fish;
His face is a' bladdit, his sark-breest a' smaddit--
And snuffie a picture as ony could wish.
He maks a mere merter o' a' thing he does,
Wi' snuff frae his fingers an' draps frae his nose.
And wow but his nose is a troublesome member--
Day and nicht, there's nae end to its snuffie desire;
It's wide as the chimlie, it's red as an ember,
And has to be fed like a dry-whinnie fire,
It's a troublesome member, and gie's him nae peace,
Even sleepin' or eatin' or sayin' the grace.
The kirk is disturbed wi' his hauchin and sneezin',
The domime stoppit when leadin' the psalm;
The minister, deav'd out o' logic and reason,
Pours gall in the lugs that are gapin' for balm.
The auld folks look surly, the young chaps jocose,
While the bodie himsel' is bambazed wi' his nose.
He scrimps the auld wife baith in garnal and caddy;
He snuffs what wad keep her in comfort and ease;
Rapee, Lundyfitt, Prince's Mixture, and Taddy,
She looks upon them as the warst o' her faes.
And we'll ne'er see an end o' her Rooshian war
While the auld carle's nose is upheld like a Czar."
Charles and Mary Lamb both enjoyed snuff, and doubtless felt its use
assisted them in their literary labours. Here is a picture drawn by Mary
of the pair as they were penning their "Tales from Shakespeare," sitting
together at the same table. "Like a literary Darby and Joan," she says, "I
taking snuff, and he groaning all the while, and saying he can make
nothing of it, till he has finished, when he finds he has made something
of it." Sterne was a snuff-taker, and when his wife was about to join him
in Paris in 1762, he wrote a letter in which he said:--"You will find good
tea upon the road from York to Dover; only bring a little to carry you
from Calais to Paris. Give the custom-house officer what I told you. At
Calais give more, if you have much Scotch snuff; but as tobacco is good
here, you had best bring a Scotch mull and make it yourself; that is,
order your valet to manufacture it, 'twill keep him out of mischief." In
another letter he says:--"You must be cautious about Scotch snuff; take
half a pound in your pocket, and make Lyd do the same." Sir Joshua
Reynolds is described as taking snuff profusely. It is related that he
powdered his waistcoat, let it fall in heaps upon the carpet, and even
upon his palette, and it thus became mixed with his pigments and
transferred to his pictures. Gibbon was a confirmed snuff-taker. In one of
his letters he relates how he took snuff. "I drew my snuff-box," he said,
"rapp'd it, took snuff twice, and continued my discourse, in my usual
attitude of my body bent forwards, and my forefinger stretched out."
Offering a pinch of snuff has always been regarded as a mark of civility,
but there are some men who could not tolerate the practice. Frederick the
Great, for example, disliked others to take snuff from his box. He was
lying in the adjoining room to one where he had left his box, and his page
helped himself to a pinch from it. He was detected, and Frederick said,
"Put that box in your pocket; it is too small for both of us." George II.
liked to have his box for his own exclusive use, and when a gentleman at a
masquerade helped himself to a pinch, the King in great anger threw away
the box.
State Lotteries.
For more than two-and-a-half centuries state lotteries were popular in
this country. They were imported into England from the continent; prior to
being known here they were established in Italy, and most probably they
came to us from that country.
An announcement of the first English lottery was made in 1566, and it
stated that it would consist of forty-thousand lots or shares at ten
shillings each. The prizes, many and valuable, included money, plate, and
certain sorts of merchandise. The winner of the greatest and most
excellent prize was entitled to receive "the value of five thousand
poundes sterling, that is to say, three thousande poundes in ready money,
seven hundred poundes in plate, gilte and white, and the reste in good
tapisserie meete of hangings and other covertures, and certain sortes of
good linen cloth." Tapisserie and good linen cloth figure in several of
the prizes, or to give the spelling of the announcement, prices. A large
number of small money prizes were offered, including ten thousand at
fifteen shillings each, and nine thousand four hundred and eighteen at
fourteen shillings each.
The object of the lottery was to raise money to repair the harbours and to
carry out other useful works. Although the undertaking was for an
excellent purpose, and the prizes tempting, the sale of the tickets was
slow, and special inducements were made by Queen Elizabeth to persons
taking shares. Persons who "adventured money in this lottery" might visit
several of the more important towns in "the Realme of Englande, and Dublyn
and Waterforde in the Realm of Irelande," and there remain for seven days
without any molestation or arrest of them for any manner of offence saving
treason, murder, pyracie, or any other felonie, or for breach of her
Majesties peace during the time of her coming abiding or returne.
Doubtless these conditions would induce many to take shares. Public bodies
as well as private persons invested money in lottery tickets. Not so much
as a matter of choice as to comply with the urgent wishes of the queen and
her advisers. The public had little taste for the lottery, but the leading
people in the land were almost compelled to take shares, and the same may
be said of chief cities and towns. In the city records of Winchester for
example, under the year 1566, it is stated:--"Taken out of the Coffer the
sum of L10 towards the next drawen of the lottery." On the 30th July,
1568, is another entry as follows:--"That L3 be taken out of the Coffers
of the cytie and be put into the lottery, and so muche money as shall make
up evyn lotts with those that are contrybuting of the cytie, so that it
passed not 10s."
The eventful day arrived after long waiting for commencing the drawing of
the lottery. The place selected for the purpose was at the west door of
St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Operations were commenced in 1569, on
January 11th, and continued day and night until May 6th.
Some years passed before another state lottery took place. It is believed
that one noticed by Stow in his "Annales," occurring in 1585, was the
second. "A lotterie," chronicles Stow, "for marvellous, rich, and
beautiful armour was begunne to be drawne at London in S. Paules
Churchyard, at the great West gate (a house of timber and board being
there erected for that purpose) on S. Peter's Day in the morning, which
lotteries continued in drawing day and night, for the space of two or
three dayes."
Our first two Stuart kings do not appear to have employed the lottery as a
means of raising money. James I. granted a lotterie in favour of the
colony of Virginia. The prizes consisted of pieces of plate. It was drawn
in a house built for the purpose near the West end of St. Paul's. The
drawing commenced on the 29th June, and was completed by 20th July, 1612.
It is said that a poor tailor won the first prize, viz. "foure thousand
Crownes in fayre plate," and that it was conveyed to his humble home in a
stately style. The lottery gave general satisfaction, it was plainly and
honestly conducted, and knights, esquires and leading citizens were
present to check any attempt at cheating. During the reign of Charles I.,
in 1630, the earliest lottery for sums of money took place.
The Puritans do not seem to have had any decided aversion to obtaining
money by means of the lottery. During the Commonwealth it was resorted to
for getting rid of forfeited Irish estates.
At the restoration the real gaming spirit commenced and caused much misery
and ruin. The lottery sheet was set up in many public places, and the
Crown received a large revenue from this source. The financial arrangement
of a lottery was simple, the state offered a certain sum of money to be
repaid by a larger. We learn from Chambers's "Book of Days," that "The
government gave L10 in prizes for every share taken, on an average. A
great many blanks, or of prizes under L10 left of course, a surplus for
the creation of a few magnificent prizes wherewith to attract the unwary
public." It was customary for city firms known as lottery-office-keepers
to contract for the lottery, and they always paid more than L10 per share,
usually L16 was paid, which left the government a handsome profit. The
contractors disposed of the tickets to the public for L20 to L22 each. The
shares were frequently divided by the contractors into halves, quarters,
eights, and sixteenths, and this was done at advanced prices. It was out
of the clients for aliquot parts that the lottery-office-keepers reaped a
heavy harvest. They were men who understood the art of advertising, and
used pictures, poetry, and prose in a most effective manner. Our own
collections of lottery puffs is curious and interesting. Some very good
examples are reproduced in "A History of English Lotteries," by John
Ashton, and published by the Leadenhall Press, London, in 1893.
[Illustration: DRAWING A LOTTERY IN THE GUILDHALL, 1751]
It is related that one firm of lottery ticket contractors gave an old
woman fifty pounds a year to join them as a nominal partner on account of
her name being Goodluck.