CHAPTER IV 



TOBACCO IN ENGLISH SOCIAL LIFE 



Sailors the first English smokers — Learning to smoke — The 

 first pipes — Speedy popularity — A German on smoking in 

 England — 'Drinking tobacco' and 'tobacconists '—Culture 

 in England — Teachers of the art of smoking — Fashionable 

 use of tobacco in the reign of James I. — Sleights of tobacco 

 — Cost of the herb — Discussed in Parliament — Its wide- 

 spread use — First British colony formed in smoke. 



Sailors who had learned the use and virtues of 

 tobacco in their expeditions to the New World were 

 the persons to make the stay-at-home English 

 acquainted with the strange Indian practice of smok- 

 ing. In the trials and privations of a seafaring life 

 and constant warfare with the domineering Spaniards 

 they became acquainted with its virtues. Returning 

 home with supplies of the precious herb, they amazed 

 and attracted the people with their practice of ' drink- 

 ing tobacco.' 



In the Sebright MS. it is stated that Captains 

 Myddleton, Thomas Price and Koet were the first 

 who smoked tobacco publicly in London. They used 

 twisted leaves, or cigars, and Londoners flocked to 

 the Pied Bull Inn at Islington, where tradition asserts 

 that the first tobacco was smoked in England, to see 

 the strange practice. 



