122 TOBACCO IN EUROPE. 



time in force in France, prohibiting the sale of to- 

 bacco, except by order of a physician,* the supply only 

 to he obtained of an apothecary. The Dutch have 

 always been famed for a love of the weed : the pipe is, 

 and ever was, their great solace. The admirable manner 

 in which Washington Irving has narrated their smoking 

 powers in Knickerbocker, is no exaggeration ; no one 

 can travel in Holland in the present day, without 

 observing the constant use of the pipe. Railway 

 carriages are expressly fitted for smokers ; and small 

 metal troughs for tobacco ashes, provided near the 

 seats. The popular theatres of Amsterdam permit 

 smoking during the performances, and a Dutch critic 

 in the pit may see his favourite play, or still more 

 favourite heroine, through the agreeable medium of 

 tobacco- smoke. The Germans can, however, rival 

 them in their powers of smoking. 



Barham, in his Lay of St. Odille {Ingoldsby Legends) 

 humourously describes 



" a certain Count Herman, 



A highly respectable man as a German, 



Who smoked like a chimney, and drank like a Merman.' 



Certainly the Germans' love of beer and tobacco is 

 unrivalled elsewhere, and enables him to do what none 

 but those "to the manner born" could do. To drink a 

 pint of beer at a draught, and several quarts at a 

 sitting ; and to fill pipes as continually as they are 



* It was issued by Lous XIII. in 1635. 



