2»<«S. N»75.,June6. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



443 



me at least) very curious. According to my in- 

 formant, when a gypsy dies everytiiing belonging 

 to him (with the exception, I suppose, of coin or 

 jewels) is destroyed. At any rate, thus it was 

 in the case now mentioned, as my informant was 

 a witness of the destruction. " First, they burnt 

 his fiddle — a right down good fiddler he was, and 

 many's the time I've danced to him at our wake ; 

 and then they burnt a lot of beautiful Witney 

 blankets, as were as good as new ; and then they 

 burnt a sight of books — for he was quite a 

 scholar — very big books they was, too — I spe- 

 cially minds one of 'em, the biggest o' the hull lot 

 — a book o' javvgraphy, as 'd tell you the history 

 o' all the world, you understand. Sir — and was 

 chock full o' queer, outlandish pictures ; and then 

 there was his grindstun, that he used to go about 

 the country with, a grindin' scissors, and razors, 

 and sich like — they couldn't burn Mm ! so they 

 carried him two miles, and then hove him right 

 into Siv'un [i. e. the river Severn] ; that's true, 

 you may take my word for it, Sir ; for I was one 

 as help'd 'em to carry it." 



Is this destruction of his personal property usual 

 on the death of a gypsy ? 



CUTHBERT B£D£, B.A. 



MOEE NOTES ON TOBACCO. 



(2»'i S. iii. 384.) 



As the value of these " Notes " depends upon 

 their accuracy, I beg to correct some errors into 

 which Me. Challsteth has fallen. 



The person whom he calls M. Nicotin is the 

 well-known Jean Nicot — a name Latinised into 

 Nicotius — ambassador at the Court of Lisbon 

 from Francis II., who sent or carried the seeds of 

 the tobacco-plant to Catherine de Medicis soon 

 after 1559, at which period it seems settled that 

 the first plant was sent into Spain and Portugal, 

 from Yucatan, according to numerous statements, 

 confirmed by the opinion of Humboldt. By the 

 time when Dr. Everhard published his treatise 

 De Herbd Panacea, in 1587, it had acquired, 

 amongst its very numerous names, that of Nico- 

 tinna, from Nicot, the Frenchman. Nicot's book 

 is entitled Tresor de la Langue Frangaise, 1606, in 

 fol. 



The Cardinal Santa Croce did not return into 

 Italy, carrying tobacco with him, until 1589 — 

 about thirty years after the plant was introduced 

 into France. 



"When Nicotmre" (sic), says Mr. Challsteth, 

 I' was introduced into France in 1560, it may be 

 inferred that other kinds of tobacco were known 

 and used in that country, and that the practice of 

 smoking was of some years' standing in Portugal." 

 This is the oddest piece of reasoning — not pro- 

 fessedly burlesque — which I have ever perused ; 



but the writer goes on still further floundering in 

 his conjectures : "If such were the case, I think 

 it can hardly have been unknown in England soon 

 after 1560, or even before, though not generally 

 used for a score of years afterwards." Is it worth 

 while to waste time in even laughing at such wild 

 assertions and vague surmises ? 



Now it is well known to 'every one who hag 

 read any work on tobacco, written in the seven- 

 teenth century and the latter part of the sixteenth, 

 that the first use of the plant in Europe was en- 

 tirely for medical purposes — and Nicot was the 

 first, it seems, to direct attention to the subject. 

 This was the only object of its cultivation at that 

 early period, namely between 1559 to about 1586, 

 when old Harriot, of Raleigh's Colony in Virginia, 

 described the uppowoc or tobacco of the Indians : 



" When we ourselves during the time we were there, 

 used to suck it after theyr maaner, as also since our re- 

 turne, and have found many rare and woaderfull experi- 

 ments of the vertues thereof: of which the relation would 

 require a volume by itselfe : the use of it by so many of 

 late, men and women of great calling, as else and some 

 learned physicians also, is sufficient witnesse." — Harriot's 

 Rep. Hakl, iii. 271. 



Of course this passage may favour the surmise 

 that Harriot was the first of England's tobacco 

 smokers ; but I have every reason as yet to be- 

 lieve that it was Raleigh who "brought it into 

 fashion," and that before the foundation of the 

 colony of Virginia no tobacco was smoked in 

 England. The following passage in the Counter- 

 blast of King James may refer to Ralph Lane, the 

 governor of the colony ; who, in 1586, deserted 

 under the pressure of its difficulties, and returned 

 with Sir Francis Drake (who had touched at the 

 colony), bringing with him three Indians, (Hak- 

 luyt's Voy., iii.) ; but it may also refer to Raleigh, 

 at the very time (1616) in prison, and certainly 

 detested by the royal author : — 



" Now to the corrupted baseness of the first use of this 

 Tobacco, doth ver3' well agree the foolish and groundless 

 first Entr}' thereof into this Kingdom. It is not so long 

 since the first entry of this abuse amongst us here, as this 

 present age can j'et very well remember, both the first 

 Author, and the form of the first Introduction of it against 

 us. It was neither brought in by King, great Conqueror, 

 nor learned Doctor of Phj'sick. With the Report of a 

 great Discovery for a Conquest, some two or three Savage 

 men were brought in together with this savage custome. 

 But the pity is, the poor, wild, barbarous men died ; but 

 that vile barbarous Custome is yet alive, yea in fresh 

 vigour ; so as it seems a miracle to me, how a Custome 

 springing from so vile a ground, and brought in by a 

 Father so generally hated, should be welcomed upon so 

 slender a warrant." 



Certainly opinion from the earliest times, as I 

 have shown in my previous note, was fixed on 

 Raleigh in this matter of tobacco ; and Dr. Short, 

 in 1750, says that — 



" King James's violent prejudices against all use of to- 

 bacco arose from his aversion to Sir Walter Raleigh, its 

 first importer into England, whom he intended a sacrifice 



