230 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 175. 



and partly to the performance of what I owe to the 

 public, a new edition of my Homer, and also of the 

 poetical works of Milton. 



" With these labours in hand, together with the 

 common avocations incident to everybody, it is hardly 

 possible that I should have opportunities for writing 

 letters. In fact, I am in debt to most of my friends, 

 and to many of them have been long in debt, whose 

 claims upon me are founded in friendship of long 

 standing. To this cause you will be so good as to as- 

 cribe it, that I have not sooner thanked you for your 

 humorous and pleasant contest with me on the sub- 

 ject of Tobacco; a contest in which I have not, at 

 present, leisure to exercise myself, otherwise I am 

 hardy enough to flatter myself, that I could take off 

 the force of some of your arguments, 



" Should you execute your design of publishing what 

 you have favoured me with a sight of, I heartily wish 

 success to your muse militant, and that your reward 

 may be — many a pleasant pipe supplied by the profits 

 of your labours. 



" Being in haste, I can add no more, except that I 

 am, with respect, and a due sense of the honour you do 

 me, 



Your obliged, &c., 



WiLMAM COWPER. 



Weston- Underwood, 

 Oct. 4, 1793." 



I hope that the above will be interesting to your 

 Nicotian reailers, and not trespass too far upon 

 your valuable space. William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



Siniff and Tobacco. — It is perhaps not generally 

 known that the custom of taking snuff is of Irish 

 ori}/in. In a "Natural History of Tobacco," in 

 the Harleian Misc., i. 535., we are told that — 



" Tiie Virginians were observed to have pipes of 

 clay l)efore ever the English came there; and from 

 those barbarians we Europeans have borrowed our 

 mode aid fishii)n of smoking. . . . The Irishmen 

 do mast commonli/ powder their tobacco, and snuff it up 

 their nostrils, which some of our Englishmen do, who 

 often chew and swallow it." 



Tliat tlie clay pipe was the original smoking 

 apparatus in England, is evident from the fol- 

 lowing lines in Skelton's Eleanor Rummin. After 

 lamenting the knavery of that age compared with 

 King Harry's time, he continues : 



" Nor did that time know, 

 To puff and to blow. 

 In a peece of white clay. 

 As you do at this day, 

 With Her and coale. 

 And a leafe in a hole," &c. 



These lines are from an edition of 1624, printed 

 in tlie Harl. Misc., i. 415. Skelton died in 1529, 

 and according to the generally received accounts, 

 tobacco was not introduced into this country till 

 1565, or thereabouts ; so the lines cannot be 

 Skelton's. They are part of an introduction to 



the tale of Eleanor Rummin. Is the author 

 known ? Erica. 



Warwick. 



" SHAKSPEAKE IN THE SHADES : A BALLAD. 



The ballad, entitled " Shakspeare's Bedside," 

 inserted in your pages (Vol. vii., p. 104.), was 

 printed (probably for the first time) in a collec- 

 tion of poems called The Muses Mirrour, 2 vols. 

 8vo., printed for Robert Baldwin, 1778. It occurs 

 at p. 90. of the first volume ; and at p. 159. of the 

 same volume I find another Shakspearian ballad, 

 which, as the book is rare, I transcribe for the 

 benefit of your readers. The work in question 

 contains a number of clever effusions by the poets 

 and wits of the last half of the eighteenth century. 

 The anonymous compiler thus commences his pre- 

 face: 



" The editor and collector of the following poems 

 does not conceive it necessary to make any apology for 

 what he has done ; but arrogates to himself the right 

 of some attention for the collecting of such pieces as 

 would have died upon their births, although the pro- 

 ductions of the best poets and men of genius for the 

 last twenty years." 



" SHAKSPEARK IN THE SHADES. 



" As Shakspeare rang'd over the regions below. 

 With the Muses attending his side, 

 The first of his critics he met with was Rowe, 

 Tho' to keep out of sight he had try'd. 



' How comes it, friend Nicholas,' said the old bard, 

 (While Nic was preparing a speech), 



' My ruins so coarsely by you were repair'd, 

 Who grace to the Graces could teach ? ' 



' Had the time you employ'd when The Biter* you 

 wrote. 



So hiss'd by the critical throng. 

 Been spent upon mending the holes in my coat. 



It had not been ragged so long.' 



Rowe blush'd, and made way for diminutive Pope, 

 Whom Shakspeare address'd with a frown, 



And said — ' Some apwlogy sure I may hope 

 From you and your friend in the gown.' 



' Had the murderous knife which my plays has de- 

 stroy'd, 



By lopping full many a scene. 

 To make you a lover like him, been employ'd. 



How flat Gibber's letter had been.' 



Pope sneak'd off confounded; and Hanmer drew 

 near. 



Whose softness a savage might melt ; 

 So Shakspeare said only, ' Sir Thomas, I fear. 



With gloves on, my beauties you felt.' 



* The Biter ; an attempt at Comedy, by Rowe, which 

 was received with that contempt which it well de- 

 served. 



