HISTORY OF PIPES. 163 
in connexion with the pipe-smokers of Holland—a dodge 
only to be justified on the equivocal maxim that all is fair in 
trade provided it just keeps within the margin we need not 
speak. A pipe manufactory was established in Flanders 
about the middle of the last century. 
“The Dutch makers, alarmed at the competition which this 
threatened, cunningly devised a stratagem for nipping it in 
the bud. They freighted a large worn-out ship with an 
enormous quantity of pipes of their own make, sent it to 
Ostend, and wrecked it there. By the municipal laws of 
that city the wreck became public property ; the pipes were 
sold at prices so ridiculously low that the town was glutted 
with the commodity; the new Flemish factory was thereby 
paralyzed, ruined, and closed. 
The Turks (especially those of the lower orders) use a 
kind of clay pipe made of red earth decorated with gilding. 
The stem of the pipe is made from a branch of jasmine, 
cherry tree or maple and is sufficiently long to rest on the 
floor when used by the smoker. <A writer in the Tobacco 
Plant says of Old English Clay pipes: 
“ Of all the various branches of the subject of tobacco, . 
that of the history of pipes is one of the most interesting, 
and one that deserves every attention that can possibly be 
given. Whether considered ethnographically, historically, 
geographically, or archzologically, pipes present food for 
speculation and research of at least equal importance to any 
other set of objects that can be brought forward. Some 
branches of the subject have already been treated in these 
columns, and others, in what is intended shall follow, will 
hereafter be discussed. The present article will be devoted 
to ‘Fairy Pipes’ and the history of the earliest pipes of this 
country. Smoking is an old and venerable institution. in 
this kingdom of ours, and dates far back beyond the intro- 
duction of tobacco to our shores. Long before Sir Walter 
Raleigh was thought of, there is reason to believe herbs and 
leaves of one kind or other—coltsfoot, yarrow, mouse-lax, 
sword-grass, dandelion, and other plants, and even dried 
cow-dung—were smoked for one ailment or other, and in 
some instances for relaxation and pleasure, and thus, no 
doubt, became habitually used. These are still, in some of 
our rural districts, smoked by people as cures for various 
ailments, and are considered not only highly efficacious but 
very pleasant. I have known these or other herbs smoked 
