92 The Soverane Herbe 



in his mouth, or, at any rate, a pipe stuck in his 

 shovel hat.' 



To modern eyes the appearance of these pheno- 

 mena would excite scarcely a passing interest. It is 

 difficult for this generation to realize the contempt 

 and odium with which smoking was regarded forty 

 years ago. It was the vice of the vulgar, a degrading 

 and disgusting habit. ' Do you wish to be taken for 

 an omnibus conductor?' Charles Greville used to 

 ask any of the younger generation whom he found 

 smoking in the region of St. James's. The habit 

 was condemned by authorities so widely distant as 

 the autocrats of Pall Mall and of the Nonconformist 

 Churches. So late as 1877 the Wesleyan Conference 

 refused to rescind the regulation of its Church 

 passed in 1795 : ' No preacher shall use tobacco for 

 smoking, for chewing, or in snuff unless it be pre- 

 scribed by a physician.' The rule is still in force, but 

 more honoured in the breach than the observance. 



The example of the King, as Prince of Wales, 

 and his fondness for a smoke have done much to 

 give smoking its present social position. But there 

 is a story that only twenty-five years ago the Prince 

 when dining with a peer proposed a cigar after dinner. 

 His host regretted that he had no smoking-room and 

 suggested the stables, to which those of the party 

 who desired a smoke then and there adjourned. 

 Smoking was thus relegated to the stable as the fitting 

 scene of such an orgie. 



The increase in smoking is clearly marked by the 

 Government returns of the imports of tobacco. In 

 1 83 1 only i2'8o ounces were imported per head of 



