In James Boswell's "Shrubs of Parnassus" (1760) a description in verse of the various kinds of tobacco-stoppers is given:
"O! let me grasp thy waist, be thou of wood
Or levigated steel, for well 'tis known
Thy habit is disease. In iron clad
Sometimes thy feature roughen to the sight,
And oft transparent art thou seen in glass,
Portending frangibility. The son
Of laboring mechanism here displays
Exuberance of skill. The curious knot,
The motley flourish winding down the sides,
And freaks of fancy pour upon the view
Their complicated charms, and as they please,
Astonish. While with glee thy touch I feel,
No harm my fingers dread. No fractured pipe
I ask, or splinters aid, wherewith to press
The rising ashes down. Oh! bless my hand,
Chief when thou com'st with hollow circle crowned
With sculptured signet, bearing in thy womb
The treasured Cork-screw. Thus a triple service
In firm alliance may'st thou boast."
Tobacco-stoppers were often made of wood from some relic like a celebrated tree or mansion which gave additional value by its historic associations. Taylor alludes to several made from the well known Glastonbury thorn. He says:—
Tobacco Stoppers.
"I saw the sayd branch, I did take a dead sprigge from it, wherewith I made two or three tobacco-stoppers, which I brought to London."
Pipes and tobacco-stoppers have often been favorite testimonials of friendship and reward. Fairholt says:—
"It was the custom during the last century to present country churchwardens with tobacco-boxes, after the faithful discharge of their duties."
The following lines from "The Tobacco Leaf," penned by some favored one on receiving a rare pipe, are no doubt as neat as the object that called them forth:—