64 The Soverane Herbe 



ordinary, theatre or the tilt-yard, if need be in the 

 most popular assembly that is.' 



' But you cannot bring him to the whiffe so soon,' 

 doubtfully asserts the nicotian aspirant. 



' Yes, as soon, sir. He shall receive the first, second 

 and third whiff if it please him, and upon the receipt 

 drink his three cups of canary, and expose one at 

 Hounslow, a second at Staines, and a third at 

 Bagshot.' 



Of Sogliardo, in the same play, it is said 'he 

 comes up every term to learn to take tobacco.' Each 

 tutor had a private room in an inn where he in- 

 structed his pupils in ' the most gentlemanlike use of 

 tobacco.' In one of these Sogliardo is depicted as 

 toiling after smoking perfection, sitting in a chair 

 while his tutor widened his nostrils with a stick ' to 

 give the smoke more free delivery.' 



Exclaims another professor of smoking : 



' I'll teach thee (do observe me here) 

 To take tobacco like a cavalier, 

 Thus draw the vapour through your nose, and say 

 " Puff! it is gone"; fuming the smoke away.' 



It was in this painful, arduous manner that the 

 pioneers of smoking became adepts in the art. Like 

 Charles Lamb, they toiled after tobacco as some men 

 toil after virtue. Anti-smokers deduce from these 

 grotesque scenes the absurdity of smoking ; but it was 

 then the fashion, and the toils and hardships of young 

 gallants after ' the delicate sweet forms for the 

 assumption ' of tobacco are surpassed in absurdity by 

 many other freaks of fashion, as the history of dress 

 and manners showeth. 



