Pipes 



147 



of drinking tobacco under the able tuition of the 

 North American Indians. Like them, as Hariot 

 distinctly states, they smoked from pipes of stone, 

 and introduced the same instruments and manner of 

 smoking into England. At first the poorer classes 

 in England were fain content to drink tobacco from 

 a walnut-shell, through a straw. The richer habitues 

 sported silver pipes. It was soon found, however, 

 that cheaper and better pipes could be made of 

 clay. These appear first to have been made about 

 1590. The German Hentzer, whose account of 

 smoking in England in 1598 has been quoted, notes 

 with surprise the use of clay pipes. Twenty years 

 later Dr. Neander, of Bremen, in his ' Tabacologia,' 

 praised the English mode of taking tobacco through 

 clay tubes in imitation of the Indians. A French- 

 man, writing in 1688, says that the English ' invented 

 the pipes of baked clay which are now used every- 

 where.' From England the Dutch learned the manu- 

 facture of pipes, and as late as the last century all 

 the tools used in pipe-making in Holland bore English 

 names. 



The first pipes were extremely small, and their 

 curious pear-shaped bowls held only a very small 

 quantity of tobacco. This, doubtless, was due to the 

 high price of the herb. The stems were about 

 3 inches long, though some were twice the size. 

 Under the bowl was a flat heel or spur, enabling the 

 pipe to be stood upright on a table. Their cost was 

 so great that for many years one pipe served a whole 

 company, being passed from man to man round the 

 table. 



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