1 62 The Soverane Herbe 



mother-of-pearl, brass, silver or gold, in various 

 forms and shapes. Such heroes as Cromwell, Nelson, 

 Wellington, etc., and the heads of dogs, horses, stags, 

 foxes, etc., adorned tobacco-stoppers in effigy. Some 

 smokers wore rings provided with a stud for ramming 

 down the contents of a pipe. 



The relic-hunters of those days frequently carved 

 their stoppers out of the wood or material of some 

 famous tree or article. Taylor, ' the water-poet,' 

 made himself two or three tobacco-stoppers out of 

 a dead branch of the famous Glastonbury thorn. 

 Shakespeare's mulberry-tree was preserved in the 

 same form. When viewing Westminster Abbey 

 Sir Roger de Coverley remarked of the Coronation 

 Chair that 'if Will Wimble were with us and saw 

 those two chairs it would go hard but he would get 

 a tobacco-stopper out of one or t'other of them.' 



