Ye snuff-takers of England
Who sniff your pinch at ease,
How very seldom you enjoy
The pleasures of a sneeze!
Give ear unto us smoking gents *
And we will plainly shew
All the joys, my brave boys!
When we a cloud do blow.
* In 1585, the English first saw pipes made of clay, among
the native Indians of Virginia; which was at that time
discovered by Richard Greenville. Soon after they fabricated
the first clay tobacco-pipes in Europe.
In 1604, James the First endeavoured, by means of heavy
imposts, to abolish the use of tobacco; and, in 1619, wrote
his
“Counterblast” against what he accounted a noxious weed, and
ordered that no planter in Virginia should cultivate more
than one hundred pounds.
In 1610, the smoking of tobacco was known at Constantinople.
To render the custom ridiculous, a Turk, who had been found
smoking, was conducted about the streets with a pipe
transfixed through his nose! And in 1653, when smoking
tobacco was first introduced into the Canton of Appenzell,
in Switzerland, the children ran after the Smokers in the
streets; the Council likewise punished them, and ordered the
innkeepers to inform against such as should smoke in their
houses.—In 1724, Pope Benedict XIV. revoked the bull of
excommunication, published by Innocent, because he himself
had acquired the habit of taking snuff!=
The snuffer, buffer! raps his mull,