GRINDING THE LEAVES. 241 



huge bins, as large as porter vats, all piled up with tobacco 

 in various stages of fermentation. The tobacco, after being 

 fermented, if intended for that light, powdery, brown-looking 

 enuff called S. P., is dried a little ; or if for Prince's Mixture, 

 Macobau, or any other kind of Eappee, is at once thrown into 

 what is called the mull. The mull is a kind of large iron 

 mortar weighing about half a ton and lined with wood ; and 

 there is a heavy pestle which travels round it, forming, as it 

 were, a large pestle and mortar. 



These mulls are placed in rows and shut up in separate 

 cupboards, to keep in the dust. The snuff-maker wanders 

 from one to the other, and feeds them as they require. 



" When the grinding of the snuff is completed it is then 

 ready for flavouring, and in this consists the great art and 

 secret of the trade. Receipts for peculiar flavors are handed 

 down from father to son as most valuable heir-looms, and 

 these receipts are in fact a valuable property in many instances, 

 for so delicate is the nose of your snuff-taker that he can 

 detect the slightest variation in the preparation of his favor- 

 ite snuff. It is related of one old snuff-maker in London, 

 who had acquired a handsome fortune and retired from busi- 

 ness, that he made it a consideration with his successors that 

 he should be allowed, so long as he lived, to attend one day 

 in the week at the business and flavor all the snuff. Most 

 people will also be familiar with some one of the numerous 

 versions of the origin of the once famous Lundy Foote Snuff, 

 better known as < Irish Blackguard.' 



" The excise are very rigid in their laws for regulating the 

 manufacture of snuff; and with the exception of a little com- 

 mon salt, which is added to make the tobacco keep, and 

 alkalies for bringing out the flavor, nothing is allowed to be 

 used but a few essential oils. And here we must digress for 

 a moment to correct a popular error, viz., that snuff 

 contains ground glass, put there for titillating purposes. 

 What appears to be ground glass is only the little crystals or 

 Email particles of alkali that have not been dissolved. So 

 that fastidious snuff-takers may dismiss this bugbear at once 

 and forever. 



" The essential oils referred to form a very expensive item 



in the manufacture of snuff. The ladies would be much 



surprised to see a dusty snuff-maker drain off five pounds' 



worth of pure unadulterated otto-of -roses into a tin can, and 



16 



