The Social History of Smoking

ONABLE: EARLY G

okes not-for hi

kes not-for he

ns Browne,

by men of fashion, and was for the most part regarded as "low" or provincial-from the time named until well into the reign of Queen Victoria. The social taboo was by no means universal-some of the exceptions will be no

istic of the "cit," of the country squire, of the clergy (especially of the country parsons), and of those of lower social status. But at the same time it

olman and Bonnell Thornton, for instance, there is, in 1754, the description of a citizen's Sunday. The good man, having sent his family to church in the morning, goes off himself to Mother Redcap's, a favourite tavern-suburban in those days-or house of call for City tr

raffic, in the absence of anything more sensible to do, where "the want of London smoke is supplied by the smoke of Virginia tobacco," and where "our chief citizens are accustomed to pass the end and the beginning of every week." In the following year there is a des

9, 1756, from a citizen who says: "I have the honour to be a member of a certain club in this city, where it is a standing order, That

Walter Gale, schoolmaster at Mayfield, Sussex, noted in his Journal under date March 26, 1751: "I went to Mr. Baker's for the list of scholars, and found hi

ther extraordinary owner of broad acres, Squire Western. We may shrewdly suspect that the portrait of Western is somewhat over-coloured, and cannot fairly be taken as typical; but t

s staying with his father at his Norfolk country-seat, Houghton, in September 1737, Gray wrote to him from Cambridge: "You are in a confusion of wine, and roaring, and hunting, and tobacco, and, heaven be praised, you too can pretty well bear it." But Gray had no objection to tobacco. He lived at Cambridge, and the dons and residents there (as at Oxford), not to speak of the undergraduates, were as partial to their pipes as the men who went out from among them to become country parsons, and to share the country squire's liking for tobacco. Gray

. Little work was done, but much tobacco was smoked. In 1733 a satire was published, violently attacking

, loo

k little, curse

and however little enthusiasm there may have been at Oxford in those days

is Thomas Warton. In his "Progress of Disco

ays when end

reading or

around the

daily pipe

stomach, an

ttlings, cor

tax'd, untro

t of our pi

om 1784 to 1829-are both said to have been, like Prior, rather fond of frequenting the company of per

al of one of the Christ Church "Carmina Quadragesmalia," which affords much the same picture of the daily life of

hairbreadth from

hin the me

eight and gone

at his College

out his bed eac

st he daily d

ve perished to s

turn to catch t

paper, as he'

Common-room the

lasses ere three

while Charles ou

heir you'll find

to do it, should be as fond of his pipe as the rest of the world around him. In a World of 1756 there is an account of a country gentleman entertaining one evening the vicar of the parish, and the host as a matter of course proceeds to order a bottle of wine with pipes and tobacco to

fliction," and leans over the rails of the gallery overlooking the inn-yard, devoting himself to meditation, "assisted by the inspiring fumes of tobacco." Later on, in the parlour of the country Justice of the Peace, who condemned his prisoners before he had taken the depositions of the witnesses against them, and who, by the way, also lit his pipe while his clerk performed this necessary duty, Adams, when his character has been cleared, sits down with the company and takes a cheerful glass and applies himself vigorousl

arson light their pipes before beginning to gossip. Farther on, when the hospitable Mr. Wilson takes the weary wayfarers in, Parson Adams loses no time in filling himself with ale, as Fielding puts it, and lighting his pipe. The menfolk-Wilson, Adams and Joseph-have to spend the night se

ok, and Parson Barnabas, who thinks that his own sermons are at least equal to Tillotson's, smoke their pipes. The other smokers in "Joseph Andrews" are the surgeon and the exciseman who, early in the story, are found sitting in the inn kitchen with Parson Barnabas, "sm

for certain omissions, but-"No, damn them," said Fielding, "if the scene is not a good one, let them find that out"; and then, according to Murphy, he retired to the green-room, where, during the progress of the play, he smoked his pipe and

was a smoker. The pipe which he was reported to have smoked on the evening before his execution, together with his snuff-box and

Stella, May 24, 1711, he asked if she still snuffed, and went on to say, in sentences that seem to contradict one another: "I have left it off, and when anybody offers me their box, I take about a tenth part of what I used to do, then just smell to it, and privately fling the rest away. I keep to my tobacco still, as you say; but even much less of that th

lso loved his pipe, was Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire

rnings, when I'

pare with a

d toucht, 'twould

Faggots or Sco

pipe. He spoke of the use of tobacco as "an uncleanly and unwholesome se

neral Court I cannot say; but smoking and the annual dinners were long associated. At the anniversary feast in 1743 there were two tables to provide for, the total number of guests being about thirty, and two "corses" to each. The cost of the food, as Canon Pearce tells us in his excellent and entertaining book on the College and its Library, was ￡19 15s.,

of equal or lower social standing smoking was as generally practised as in the preceding century. Handel, I may note, enjoyed his pipe. Dr. Burney, when a schoolboy at Chester, was "extremely curious to see so extraordinary a man," so when Handel went through that city in 1741 on his way to Ireland, young Burn

uses were visited by the inferior tradesmen, mechanics, journeymen, porters, coachmen, carmen, servants, and others whose pockets were not equal to the price of a glass of wine, which, apparently, was the more usual thing to call for at a tavern, properl

or woman) who could smoke out three ounces of tobacco first, without drinking or going off the stage, should have 12s. "Many tryed," continues Hearne, "and 'twas thought that a journeyman taylour of St. Peter's in the East would have been victor, he smoking faster than, and being many pipes before, the rest: but at

o but show them, and presently take away everything, even to the tablecloth. By this the English, whom politeness does not permit to tell the ladies their company is troublesome, giv

on board a vessel called by the un-Quaker-like name of The Charming Polly, which brought a party of Friends across the Atlantic from Philadelphia in 1756,

ther aggravate the calamity. Their drinking and raking only makes them look like old maids. Their swearing is almost as shocking as it would be in the other sex. Their chewing tobacco not only offends, but makes us apprehensive at the same time that the poor things will be sick," as they certainly w

s "Sir Harry." "Right Strasburgh, I assure you, and of my own importing," says the knowing ducal valet. "The city people adulterate it so confoundedly," he continues, "that I always import my own snuff;" and in similar vein he goes on in imitation of his master, the genuine Duke. These

lled "A Pipe of Tobacco," which was written in imitation of six different poets. The author was Isaac Hawkins Browne, and the poets imitated were the Laureate Cibber, Philips, Th

rtal! he

hich a Pip

ddies cli

ound a mi

d Shilling," is really pretty and must be given entire. It reveals

be of mig

of an id

f my war

x, and ey

snowy ta

inger gen

etty swell

ittle sto

etest bliss

from thy b

ce, and th

he of h

gen the ni

n the ta

the cric

icket, ful

d his tub

ragrant In

for a nos

f the god

ce, and th

he of h

ppy strains, though number five has a line worth not

ted, hated b

ur contains evidence of the distaste f

r the tickling

claim to wis

okes not-for h

kes not-for he

es are brought,

oke, except the

ate the puffing

ove the breath th

* *

n, who still its

leasure smoke, a

ch were much resented by the people generally. The controversy produced a host of squibs and caricatures, most of which were directed against the measure. The Bill was defeated in 1733, and great and general were the rejoicings. When the news reached Derby on April 19 in that year, the dealers in tobacco caused all the bells in the Derby churches to be rung, and we may be sure that this rather unusual perf

n, who, when

men threatened

iver from the

bottle and th

dley! may for

ed, rejoice t

best in Christ

topper, and com

etching by Hogarth, in which appear the figures of the British Lion and Britanni

s scythe falling from his grasp and a long clay pipe breaking in two as it falls from his lips. This was issued in 1764-Hogarth's last published work. In the plate which shows the execution of Thomas Idle, in the "Industry and Idleness" series, Hogarth depicts the little hangman smoking a short pipe as he sits on t

n The Stage-Coach, or Country Inn-yard, is shown an old woman smoking a pipe in the "basket" of the coach. The plate of The Distrest Poet (1736) shows four books and three tobacco-pipes on a shelf. In the second of the "Election" series-the Canvassing for Votes (1755)-a barber and a cobbler, seated at the table in the right-hand corner, are both smoking long pipes. Apparently they are discussing the taking of Portobello by Admiral Vernon in 1739 with only six ships; f

and laid in a bottle of wine, pipes, tobacco, and light, and so came merrily up the river. The arm-chair in which Hogarth was wont to sit and smoke is still preserved in his house at Chiswick, which has been bought and preserved as a memorial of