170 



TOBACCO-PIPES, CIGAKS, ETC. 



the fashion of the specimens here engraved from pipes 

 found at Kilmallock, formerly in the collection of Mr. 



Croker. In 1854 there was exhibited at the meeting 

 of the Archaeological Institute at Shrewsbury, part of 

 a large collection formed by Mr. Thursfield of Broseley 

 in Shropshire ; the clay of which they were made came 

 from Shirlett, about two miles from Broseley, where a 

 large pipe-factory existed. One of them was particu- 

 larly interesting, as it had a very 

 broad spur, which was stamped 

 with a hollow square, having 

 within it, in raised letters, the 

 name of the maker and the date — 

 JOHN LEGG, 1687; another 

 bore the same name and the date 

 1696. The clay of which they were formed was very 

 pure and hard. 



Aubrey, writing about 1680, tells us that tobacco- 

 smokers at first sported silver pipes, "but the ordinary 

 sort made use of a walnut shell and a straw." The 

 clay pipe soon became cheap and common. " I have 

 heard my grandfather say that one pipe was handed 

 from man to man round the table." This exactly 

 accords with what the dramatists of the age of Eliza- 



