Snuff and Snuff-takers 267 



friendship and admiration. Containing gifts of money 

 they were presented to charities. They were pre- 

 sented with the freedom of cities. When Pitt was 

 forced to resign, ' it rained snuff-boxes ' on him for a 

 month. Snuff-boxes were passed round with the wine 

 after dinner. Regiments had their mess-boxes. To 

 offer one's box to a person for a pinch was a mark of 

 favour and grace. Talleyrand's declaration that the 

 use of snuff was essential to diplomacy was an actual 

 fact. Boxes were presented to ambassadors on great 

 occasions, such as the accession, coronation, or marri- 

 age of Sovereigns. At the coronation of George IV. 

 ;^8,205 15s. sd. was paid to Messrs. Rundell and 

 Bridge for ' snuff-boxes to foreign Ministers ' as means 

 of maintaining friendly relations with the States they 

 represented. 



A beau prided himself on his snuff and his boxes. 

 Lord Petersham had a box for every day in the 

 year. Someone admiring a light blue Sevres box, 

 he answered carelessly : ' Yes, it's a nice box for 

 summer, but would not do for winter use.' Lady 

 Mary Wortley Montague's son had a hundred dif- 

 ferent boxes. From historical relics boxes were made 

 and eagerly prized. The deck planks of the Victory, 

 Shakespeare's mulberry-tree, the table on which 

 Wellington wrote his Waterloo despatch, Crabbe's 

 cudgel, Siddons' desk, were all turned into snuff-boxes. 

 Of the furniture of a lady's boudoir a snuff-box 

 fashioned with the most delicate art and grace in 

 porcelain, mother-of-pearl, gold or silver, was an 

 indispensable item. 



Gentlemen laid down snuff as they laid down 



