333 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nds, N<»43., Oct. 25. '56. 



Books to Public Libraries. — In Frederick von 

 Raunier's England in 183,5, speaking of the taxes 

 on literature, he says (vol. iii. p. 58.) : 



" Eleven copies [of every new work] must be delivered 

 to libraries which, for the most part, are not open to the 

 public. * * *. " 



Will you kindly inform me: 1. Which were 

 the eleven libraries that, in 1835, were entitled to 

 a copy of every new work? and, 2. Which libra- 

 ries at the present day enjoy this privilege ? 



Vespeetilio. 



[In 1835, the libraries claiming copies were the Uni- 

 versities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, 

 Aberdeen, St. Andrews, and Trinity College, Dublin ; the 

 British Museum, Sion College, the Faculty of Advocates, 

 Edinburgh, and the King's Inns, Dublin. By the copy- 

 right act, 5 & 6 Vict., c. 45., passed July 1, 1842, Jive 

 copies are required ; four to be delivered to the officer of 

 the Stationers' Company, and one direct to the British 

 Museum. Or the publishers may deliver the copies di- 

 rest to the respective libraries, viz. the Bodleian, the 

 Public Library at Cambridge, the Faculty of Advocates 

 at Edinburgh, and Trinity College, Dublin.] 



POEMS IN PKAISE OF TOBACCO. 



(2"'^ S. i. 115. 182. 258. 320. 378. 504. ; ii. 95.) 

 The following very clever parodies have not 

 been mentioned ; A Pipe of Tobacco, in imitation 

 of Six several Authors, by Hawkins Browne, Esq. 

 They are published in the Oxford Sausage, and 

 are in imitation of Gibber, A. Phillips, Thomson, 

 Young, Pope, and Swift. They richly deserve 

 the honours of full quotation in any work devoted 

 to the praise of tobacco, and are parodies as clever 

 and close as any in the Rejected Addresses. 

 Witness the following lines, in " imitation of Mr. 

 A. Phillips : " 



" Little tube of mighty pow'r, 

 Charmer of an idle hour, 

 Object of my warm desire, 

 Life of wax, and eye of fire ; 

 And thy snowy taper waist. 

 With my finger gently brac'd ; 

 And thy pretty swelling crest, 

 With my little stopper prest. 

 And the sweetest bliss of blisses. 

 Breathing from thy balmy kisses. 

 Happy thrice, and thrice agen, 

 Happiest he of happy men ; 

 Who when agen the night returns. 

 When agen the taper burns ; 

 When agen the cricket's gay, 

 (Little cricket, full of play) 

 Can afford his tube to feed 

 With the fragrant Indian Weed : 

 Pleasure for a nose divine, 

 Incense of the God of Wine. 

 Happy thrice, and thrice agen, 

 Happiest he of happy men." 



(I quote from the original edition of the Oxford 

 Sausage, which is without a date ; and I would 



here inquire if the book was first published in 

 1772, or when.*) Nor should some modern Ox- 

 ford parodies on this subject be forgotten ; viz. 

 the two (.to the airs of " Love Not," and " The 

 last Rose of Summer ") printed in Hints to Fresh- 

 men ; they are clever enough to deserve quotation. 

 John Phillips must also be remembered for his 

 oft-repeated poetical praises of tobacco ; for which 

 see particularly the passage in The Splendid Shil' 

 ling, commencing, — 



" or from tube as black 



As winter- chimney, or well-polish'd jet," 



and the lines in his poem on Cider : 



" To sage experience we owe 

 The Indian weed unknown to ancient times, 

 Nature's choice gift, whose acrimonious fume 

 Extracts superfluous juices, and refines 

 The blood distemper'd from its noxious salts ; 

 Friend to the spirits, wliich with vapours bland 

 It gently mitigates; companion fit 

 Of pleasantry and wine ; nor to the bards 

 Unfriendly, when they to the vocal shell 

 Warble melodious their well-labour'd songs." 



Perhaps the most whimsical poetical praise of 

 tobacco is to be found in Charles Lamb's Farewell 

 to Tobacco, wherein condemnation is so humorously 

 and iancifuUy mingled with praise. The poem 

 (of 146 lines) is too long to be given here ; those 

 who have it not within reach can divine its nature 

 from the following extract : 



" Scent to match thy rich perfume 

 Chemic art did ne'er presume ; 

 Through her quaint alembic strain. 

 None so sovreign to the brain : 

 Nature, that did in thee excel. 

 Framed again no second smell. 

 Roses, violets, but toys 

 For the smaller sort of boys, 

 Or for greener damsels meant ; 

 Thou art the only manly scent. 



Stinking'st of the stinking kind. 

 Filth of the mouth, and fog of the mind, 

 Africa, that brags her foison. 

 Breeds no such prodigious poison ; 

 Henbane, nightshade, both together, 

 Hemlock, aconite — 



Nay, rather. 

 Plant divine, of rarest virtue ; 

 Blisters on the tongue would hurt you. 

 'Twas but in a sort I blamed thee ; 

 None e'er prosper'd who defam'd thee." 



See also on this subject Byron's praise of to- 

 bacco : 



" Sublime tobacco ! which from east to west, 

 Cheers the Tar's labour, or the Turkman's rest," &c. 

 The Island, Canto ii. xix. 



In the notes to this passage (Murray's octavo 

 ed. p. 168.) Dr. Johnson is made to say : 



" Smoking has gone out. To be sure, it is a shocking 

 thing, blowing smoke out of our mouths into other 



* Isaac Hawkins Browne, the author of these six paro- 

 dies, was born in 1705, and died in 1760, — C. B. 



