FAMOUS SNUFFS. 223 



" For females fair, and formal fops to please, 

 The mines are robb'd of ore, of shells the seas, 

 With all that mother-earth and beast afford 

 To man, unworthy now, tho' once their lord : 

 Which wrought into a box, with all the show 

 Of art the greatest artist can bestow; 

 Charming in shape, with polished rays of light, 

 A joint so fine it shuns the sharpest sight ; 

 Must still be graced with all the radiant gems 

 And precious stones that e'er arrived in Thames. 

 Within the lid the painter plays his part, 

 And with his pencil proves his matchless art ; 

 There drawn to life some spark or mistress dwells, 

 Like hermits chaste and constant to their cells." 



Some of the more highly perfumed snuffs sold for thirty 

 shillings a pound, while the cheaper kinds, such as English 

 Rappee and John's Lane, could be bought for two or three 

 shillings per pound. There are at least two hundred kinds 

 of snuff well known in commerce. The Scotch and Irish 

 snuffs are for the most part made from the midribs ; the 

 Strasburgh, French, Spanish, and Russian snuffs from the 

 soft parts of the leaves. An English writer gives the follow- 

 ing account of some of the well-known snuffs and the method 

 of manufacturing: 



" For the famous fancy snuff known as Maroco, the recipe 

 is to take forty parts of French or St. Omer tobacco, with 

 twenty parts of fermented Virginia stalks in powder ; the 

 whole to be ground and sifted. To this powder must be 

 added two pounds and a half of rose leaves in fine powder ; 

 and the whole must be moistened with salt and water and 

 thoroughly incorporated. After that it must be c worked 

 up' with cream and salts of tartar, and packed in lead to 

 preserve its delicate aroma. The celebrated 'gros grain 

 Paris snuff' is composed of equal parts of Amersfoort and 

 James River tobacco, and the scent is imported by a ' sauce,' 

 among the ingredients of which are salt, soda, tamarinds, 

 red wine, syrup, cognac, and cream of tartar." 



The mode of manufacture of snuff now is far different than 

 that employed in the Seventeenth Century. Then the leaves 

 were simply dried and made fine by rubbing them together 

 in the hands, or ground in some rude mill ; still later the 



