Chapter 3 Part 2
TOBACCO TRIUMPHANT (continued)—
SELLERS OF TOBACCO AND PROFESSORS OF
SMOKING—
ABUSE AND PRAISE OF TOBACCO
Sometimes coltsfoot was mixed with tobacco. Ursula, the pig-woman and
refreshment-booth keeper in Bartholomew Fair, in Ben Jonson's play of
that name, says to her assistant: "Threepence a pipe-full I will have
made, of all my whole half-pound of tobacco and a quarter of a pound
of coltsfoot mixt with it too to eke it out."
The fumes of dried coltsfoot leaves were used as a remedy in cases of
difficulty of breathing, both in ancient Roman times and in Tudor
England. Lyte, in his translation, 1578, of Dodoens' "Historie of
Plants," says of coltsfoot: "The parfume of the dryed leaves layde
upon quicke coles, taken into the mouth through the pipe of a funnell,
or tunnell, helpeth suche as are troubled with the shortnesse of
winde, and fetche their breath thicke or often, and do [sic] breake
without daunger the impostems of the breast." The leaves of coltsfoot
and of other plants have often been used as a substitute for tobacco
in modern days. A correspondent of Notes and Queries, in 1897, said
that when he was a boy he knew an old Calvinist minister, who used to
smoke a dried mixture of the leaves of horehound, yarrow and "foal's
foot" intermingled with a small quantity of tobacco. He said it was a
very good substitute for the genuine article. Similar mixtures, or the
leaves of coltsfoot alone, have often been smoked in bygone days by
folk who could not afford to smoke tobacco only.
The number of shops where tobacco was sold in the early days of its
triumph seems to have been extraordinary. Barnaby Rich, one of the
most prolific parents of pamphlets in an age of prolific writers,
wrote a satire on "The Honestie of this Age," which was printed in
1614. In this production Rich declares that every fellow who came into
an ale-house and called for his pot, must have his pipe also, for
tobacco was then a commodity as much sold in every tavern, inn and
ale-house as wine, ale, or beer. He goes on to say that apothecaries'
shops, grocers' shops, and chandlers' shops were (almost) never
without company who from morning to night were still taking tobacco;
and what a number there are besides, he adds, "that doe keepe houses,
set open shoppes, that have no other trade to live by but by the
selling of tobacco." Rich says he had been told that a list had been
recently made of all the houses that traded in tobacco in and near
about London, and that if a man might believe what was confidently
reported, there were found to be upwards of 7000 houses that lived by
that trade; but he could not say whether the apothecaries', grocers'
and chandlers' shops, where tobacco was also sold, were included in
that number. He proceeds to calculate what the annual expenditure on
smoke must be. The number of 7000 seems very large and is perhaps
exaggerated. Round numbers are apt to be over rather than under the
mark.
Another proof of the extraordinary popularity of the new habit is to
be found in the fact that by the seventeenth year of the reign of
James I—the arch-enemy of tobacco—that is, by 1620, the Society of
Tobacco-pipe-makers had become so very numerous and considerable a
body that they were incorporated by royal charter, and bore on their
shield a tobacco plant in full blossom. The Society's motto was
happily chosen—"Let brotherly love continue."
A further witness to the prevalence of smoking and to the enormous
number of tobacco-sellers' shops is Camden, the antiquary. In his
"Annales," 1625, he remarks with curious detail that since its
introduction—"that Indian plant called Tobacco, or Nicotiana, is
growne so frequent in use and of such price, that many, nay, the most
part, with an insatiable desire doe take of it, drawing into their
mouth the smoke thereof, which is of a strong scent, through a pipe
made of earth, and venting of it againe through their nose; some for
wantownesse, or rather fashion sake, and other for health sake,
insomuch that Tobacco shops are set up in greater number than either
Alehouses or Tavernes."
One result of the herb's popularity was found in frequent attempts by
tradesmen of various kinds to sell it without being duly licensed to
do so. Mr. W.G. Bell, in his valuable book on "Fleet Street in Seven
Centuries," mentions the arrest of a Fleet Street grocer by the Star
Chamber for unlicensed trading in tobacco. He also quotes from the St.
Dunstan's Wardmote Register of 1630 several cases of complaint against
unlicensed traders and others. Four men were presented "for selling
ale and tobacco unlicensed, and for annoying the Judges of Serjeants
Inn whose chambers are near adjoyning." Two other men, one of them
hailing from the notorious Ram Alley, were presented "for annoying the
Judges at Serjeants Inn with the stench and smell of their tobacco,"
which looks as if the Judges were of King James's mind about smoking.
The same Register of 1630 records the presentment of two men of the
same family name—Thomas Bouringe and Philip Bouringe—"for keeping
open their shops and selling tobacco at unlawful hours, and having
disorderly people in their house to the great disturbance of all the
inhabitants and neighbours near adjoining." The Ram Alley, Fleet
Street, mentioned above, was notorious in sundry ways. Mr. Bell
mentions that in 1618 the wardmote laid complaint against Timothy
Louse and John Barker, of Ram Alley, "for keeping their
tobacco-shoppes open all night and fyers in the same without any
chimney and suffering hot waters [spirits] and selling also without
licence, to the great disquietness and annoyance of that
neighbourhood." There were sad goings on of many kinds in Ram Alley.
It is uncertain when licences were first issued for the sale of
tobacco. Probably they were issued in London some time before it was
considered necessary to license dealers in other parts of the country.
Among the Municipal Records of Exeter is the following note: "358.
Whitehall, 31 August 1633. The Lords of the Council to the Chamber.
'Whereas his Ma^tie to prevent the excesse of the use of Tobacco , and
to set an order to those that regrate and sell or utter it by retayle,
who observe noe reasonable rates or prizes [prices], nor take care
that it be wholsome for men's bodyes that shall use it,' has caused
letters to be sent to the chief Officers of Citties and towns
requiring them to certify 'in what places it might be fitt to suffer
ye retayleing of Tobacco and how many be licenced in each of those
places to use trade'; and the City of Exeter having made a return the
Lords sent a list of those which are to be licensed, and order that no
others be permitted to sell."
In the neighbouring county of Somerset the Justices of the Peace sent
presentments to the Council in 1632 of persons within the Hundred of
Milverton and Kingsbury West thought fit to sell tobacco by retail;
and for Wiveliscombe, Mr. Hancock says in his book on that old town, a
mercer and a hosier were selected.
It would seem, from one example I have noted, as if in some places
smoking were not allowed in public-houses. In the account-book of St.
Stephen's Church and Parish, Norwich, the income for the year 1628-29
included on one occasion 20s. received by way of fine from one
Edmond Nockals for selling a pot of beer "wanting in measure, contrary
to the law," and another sovereign from William Howlyns for a like
offence. This is right and intelligible enough; but on another
occasion in the same year each of these men, who presumably were
ale-house keepers, had to pay 30s.—a substantial sum considering
the then value of money—for the same offence and "for suffering
parishioners to smoke in his house." I have been unable to obtain any
information as to why a publican should have been fined an additional
10s. for the heinous offence of allowing a brother parishioner to
smoke in his house.
Penalties for "offences" of this fanciful kind were not common in
England; but in Puritan New England they were abundant. In the early
days of the American Colonies the use of the "creature called Tobacko" was by no means encouraged. In Connecticut a man was permitted by the
law to smoke once if he went on a journey of ten miles, but not more
than once a day and by no means in another man's house. It could
hardly have been difficult to evade so absurd a regulation as this. It has been already stated that the Elizabethan gallant was
acquainted with the most fashionable methods of inhaling and exhaling
the smoke of tobacco. A singular feature of the enthusiasm for tobacco in the early years of the seventeenth century was the existence of
professors of the art of smoking. |
