244 The Soverane Herbe 



furnace, and took snuff like the Scotsmen he so much 

 hated. He kept his snuff in his waistcoat pocket, 

 and with characteristic slovenliness his dress was 

 always smeared with it. All his friends — Goldsmith, 

 Reynolds, Garrick — were his companions in tobacco- 

 worship. Equally devout Nicotians were Fielding, 

 Hogarth, and Jenner. 



Many a pleasant evening did Charles Lamb and 

 Coleridge spend in 'the little smoky room at the 

 Salutation and the Cat.' Lamb was an inveterate 

 smoker. Once Parr asked him how it was he could 

 smoke so furiously and continuously. 



' I toiled after it, sir,' replied Lamb, ' as some 

 men toil after virtue.' 



He was content to use the coarsest and cheapest 

 tobacco so long as it was tobacco. Wordsworth, 

 Keats, Coleridge, and De Quincey smoked many a pipe 

 with him. Southey did not smoke. Sending some 

 copies of Milton to Coleridge in 1802, Lamb bade 

 him carefully read any page soiled with stray tobacco- 

 ash. ' Depend upon it, it contains good matter.' 



The celebrated ' Farewell to Tobacco ' is a proof 

 of Lamb's insight into the opposite side of the 

 question, but through his abuse comes the truth : 



' For thy sake, Tobacco, I 

 Would do anything but die.' 



' I design to give up smoking, but I have not yet 

 fixed upon the equivalent vice,' pleaded Lamb. 

 The blame which Lamb heaped upon tobacco for 

 his headaches and low spirits should have been 

 bestowed on beer and wine. To Wordsworth he 



