Snuff and Snuff-takers 263 



preparation of snuff, says that very little snuff was 

 taken before 1702, ' it being chiefly a luxurious habit 

 among foreigners residing here, and a few of the 

 English gentry who had travelled abroad. Amongst 

 these the mode of taking the snuff was with pipes 

 of the size of quills out of small spring boxes. These 

 pipes let out a very small quantity of snuff upon the 

 back of the hand, and this was snuffed up the nostrils 

 with the intention of producing the sneezing, which 

 I need not say forms now no part of the design or 

 rather fashion of snuff-taking.' 



The Spanish War gave a great impetus to the 

 use of snuff. Sir George Rooke revenged his failure 

 at Cadiz in 1702 by a raid on Port St. Mary and 

 Vigo, where he captured several prizes, included 

 among the cargoes being many hundred barrels of 

 snuff, imported from Havana. Fifty tons of this 

 snuff were awarded to the crews as part of their 

 share of the prizes. Eager to turn it into money, 

 the sailors sold the stuff on landing at Portsmouth, 

 Plymouth, and Chatham at the low price of 46. a 

 pound. This Vigo snuff was cheaply retailed to the 

 public, who, attracted by its low cost, the growing 

 fashionability of its use, the name of the snuff, and 

 the popularity of the war, bought it in large quanti- 

 ties. Once tasted they asked for more. 



It was an age of snuff. The beau took it in 

 dainty pinches, his cook in huge handfuls. Snuff 

 completely displaced smoking in society. The litera- 

 ture of the period abounds with references to and 

 satires on the habit. A Frenchman (Misson) de- 

 scribed English beaux as ' creatures compounded of 



