PREFACE 



Fifty years ago Tobacco in England was at its lowest 

 ebb. Snuff was declining in favour, and the increasing 

 practice of smoking was being opposed bitterly by 

 Society. ' To drink tobacco ' was then far from being 

 considered the gentlemanly accomplishment that it 

 was in the reign of Elizabeth or the harmless hobby 

 that it is now. Smoking was regarded as a low 

 vulgar practice, to be indulged in by only artisans, 

 Bohemians, and the scum of society. Only within 

 the last twenty years has smoking regained the social 

 position that it held in the golden age of Queen Bess 

 and the stern times of the seventeenth century. It 

 is no longer scorned and sneered at, nor its practice 

 relegated to the stable. It has lived down calumny 

 and survived the satire and frown of Mrs. Grundy 

 and the death sentence of the medical profession. It 

 has come again to be regarded as one of the greatest 

 boons with which man has been blessed. 



