TO SMOKE OR NOT TO SMOKE? 43 



with their wits about them, and I was obliged to drink for want 

 of something else to do. In the same way, I never smoke, 

 though I can smoke to any amount, and have done so when 

 my agricultural friends at times were blowing such clouds, as 

 made it incumbent on me to raise an equally thick one, to save 

 me from the mists of theirs. A regular smoker is scarcely ever 

 sweet enough for a lady's drawing-room ; but wherever he goes, 

 and more particularly in damp weather, his redolence reminds 

 you of the butt-end of an old tobacco-pipe. My abstinence 

 from the pipe, coupled with the ability to smoke, has been 

 serviceable to me more than once. Returning from the Broad- 

 way country after hunting with Lord Fitzhardinge's hounds, 

 drenched to the skin with rain, in a post-chaise, I shut up the 

 windows, and smoked cigars the whole way to Cheltenham, and 

 never was better in my life. Also, if I feel chilled, and think 

 that a cold is coming on, a cigar and a glass of hot brandy and 

 water will drive it away. The sea, the river, the damp ground, 

 lying on the mud in waiting for wild-fowl, never give me cold ; 

 London gives it me, and particularly the House of Commons. 

 Lord Malmsbury and myself have both made the remark, that 

 when a man, while out on any sporting occasion, lights a pipe, 

 it is all up with the good he will do for that day. The outdoor 

 servants in my employ who always carried a short pipe in their 

 waistcoat pockets, to smoke whenever my back was turned, were 

 utterly useless ; and I have discharged some because I could not 

 break them off the habit. Though much younger than I am, 

 when in the forest or partridge-shooting, I could not only run 

 or walk their jackets and waistcoats off their backs, but, while my 

 lips were unparched, these habitual smokers were lying down to 

 drink at every puddle. In regard to the moderate use of 

 tobacco, I remember hearing the late Dr. Jenner say, that in 

 the whole range of his experience, he never met with a case of 

 great or remarkable longevity, unless the patient had made use 

 of tobacco in one shape or the other, in smoking, in chewing, or 

 in snuff. I have heard of a funny accident happening to a 

 colonel in the Guards, who ought to have borne in mind the 



