In London, in 1721, Thomas Hearne tells us school children were compelled
to smoke. "And I remember," he says, "that I heard Tom Rogers say that
when he was yeoman beadle that year, when the plague raged, being a boy
at Eaton, all the boys of his school were obliged to smoke in the
school-room every morning, and that he never was whipped so much in his
life as he was one morning for not smoking."
[Illustration: YOUNG SMOKERS.]
Some boys, nowadays, would gladly undergo the "flogging" if they could be
permitted to enjoy a smoke afterwards.
There are but few people inhabiting the eastern coast, and following
fishing for a vocation, who do not smoke or chew tobacco; and their wives
and children also smoke.
Sailors are proverbially addicted to smoking and chewing. Their love of
tobacco far exceeds their appetite for grog.
* * * * *
The following letter from a sailor below port to his brother in London
explains itself:--
NEAR GRAVESEND, on board Belotropen.