The Trial of Tobacco 25 



conquered the New, and in turn tobacco even more 

 completely subjugated the Old. 



As Hariot more than hints, Englishmen first took 

 tobacco to appease their hunger and relieve their 

 privations during their expeditions to the New World. 

 Thus, at first tobacco was confined to sailors and 

 travellers, who resorted to it of necessity ; they soon 

 found that the practice was more palatable than 

 those which the mother of invention usually imposes. 

 From his deputies in the settlement of Virginia 

 Raleigh acquired the habit, and smoked not of neces- 

 sity but of freewill, for pleasure. Perhaps heeding 

 the eulogies of physicians in their first flush of enthu- 

 siasm over tobacco, he smoked as a preventive against 

 the damp and fogs of Ireland, in which he was 

 stationed as Governor of Kilcolman, with Edmund 

 Spenser as companion, in 1586-1587. He cultivated 

 tobacco near Cork and Youghal. In the garden of 

 Youghal Manor House there still stand four yew- 

 trees, forming an arbour where Raleigh is said to 

 have smoked his first pipe, and many subsequent 

 ones. 



Apart from the delight he experienced in smoking 

 tobacco, by making the practice known Raleigh was 

 creating a demand for the herb of Virginia, and thus, 

 in some measure, working for the success of his ill- 

 starred settlement. The story of Raleigh, when 

 smoking, being drenched with ale by a servant who 

 thought he was on fire was a stock jest with Eliza- 

 bethan and later dramatists, the anecdote being 

 found in numerous guises. It is certain that Raleigh 

 was intensely devoted to tobacco, and smoked it on 



