TOBACCO.--The charge made against the Historical Society of Lancashire
and Cheshire, by your correspondent T. M. in your "Current Notes" for
January (p. 5), induced me to refer to the former numbers, of which, as
I do not possess a complete set, I will thank you to forward me a copy
of the Collected Edition you have announced. But, as by looking over
the numbers which I have, I find that T. M. (see "Current Notes" for
Feb. 1851, p. 13), is curious upon the subject of smoking and tobacco,
I send you the following extract from an old miscellaneous manuscript
book which came into my possession a few years since at Gloucester, and
has the dates 1699 and 1703, with the names Bubb or Butt and Richard
Smith in it--but part of which is written in a much earlier hand.
"_I was tempted to smoke no tobac
And to smoke.
"When the_ (HOLY) _Angel_ (SPIRIT) _torn'd I
Discorst on to the other
I told him that I
Did think not to smoke no more
Tobacko nor drink no more Alle
And I have. I hope the Lord
Will forgive me, as he told the
Spirit blind me, and ever since
I have been tempted to smoke and
Not to smok. The Angel Spirit
Is you when I do smok no tobac
But when I do he comes to me
Again and I am tempted to smok._"
What an extraordinary record is this of a mental struggle to overcome
the cravings for Tobacco and Ale.