162 The Soverane Herbe 



mother-of-pearl, brass, silver or gold, in various 

 forms and shapes. Such heroes as Cromwell, Nelson, 

 Wellington, etc., and the heads of dogs, horses, stags, 

 foxes, etc., adorned tobacco-stoppers in effigy. Some 

 smokers wore rings provided with a stud for ramming 

 down the contents of a pipe. 



The relic-hunters of those days frequently carved 

 their stoppers out of the wood or material of some 

 famous tree or article. Taylor, 'the water-poet,' 

 made himself two or three tobacco-stoppers out of 

 a dead branch of the famous Glastonbury thorn. 

 Shakespeare's mulberry-tree was preserved in the 

 same form. When viewing Westminster Abbey 

 Sir Roger de Coverley remarked of the Coronation 

 Chair that ' if Will Wimble were with us and saw 

 those two chairs it would go hard but he would get 

 a tobacco-stopper out of one or t'other of them.' 



