HISTORY OF PIPES. 163 



in connexion with the pipe-smokers of Holland a dodge 

 only to be justified on the equivocal maxim that all is fair in 

 trade provided it just keeps within the margin we need not 

 speak. A pipe manufactory was established in Flanders 

 about the middle of the last century. 



"The Dutch makers, alarmed at the competition which this 

 threatened, cunningly devised a stratagem for nipping it in 

 the bud. They freighted a large worn-out ship with an 

 enormous quantity of pipes of their own make, sent it to 

 Ostend, and wrecked it there. By the municipal laws of 

 that city the wreck became public property ; the pipes were 

 sold at prices so ridiculously low that the, town was glutted 

 with the commodity ; the new Flemish factory was thereby 

 paralyzed, ruined, and closed. 



The Turks (especially those of the lower orders) use a 

 kind of clay pipe made of red earth decorated with gilding. 

 The stem of the pipe is made from a branch of jasmine, 

 cherry tree or maple and is sufficiently long to rest on the 

 floor when used by the smoker. A writer in the Tobacco 

 Plant says of Old English Clay pipes : 



" Of all the various branches of the subject of tobacco, 

 that of the history of pipes is one of the most interesting, 

 and one that deserves every attention that can possibly be 

 given. Whether considered ethnographically, historically, 

 geographically, or archseologically, pipes present food for 

 speculation and research of at least equal importance to any 

 other set of objects that can be brought forward. Some 

 branches of the subject have already been treated in these 

 columns, and others, in what is intended shall follow, will 

 hereafter be discussed. The present article will be devoted 

 to 4 Fairy Pipes ' and the history of the earliest pipes of this 

 country. Smoking is an old and venerable institution in 

 this kingdom of ours, and dates far back beyond the intro- 

 duction of tobacco to our shores. Long before Sir Walter 

 Raleigh was thought of, there is reason to believe herbs and 

 leaves of one kind or other coltsfoot, yarrow, mouse-lax, 

 sword-grass, dandelion, and other plants, and even dried 

 cow-dung were smoked for one ailment or other, and in 

 some instances for relaxation and pleasure, and thus, no 

 doubt, became habitually used. These are still, in some of 

 our rural districts, smoked by people as cures for various 

 ailments, and are considered not only highly efficacious but 

 very pleasant. I have known these or other herbs smoked 



