TOBACCO. 
783 
when he speaks of the first author and introduction of it being then 
well remembered; and is said to have been so partial to it, that he 
took, says a nearly contemporary writer, “ a pipe of tobacco a little 
before he went to the scaffold, which some formal persons were scan- 
dalized at ; but I think,” he adds, “ ’twas well and properly done, to 
settle his spirits.” And the same author adds the following curious 
anecdotes on this subject. “In my part of North Wilts, (Malmsbury 
hundred,) it were brought into fashion by Sir Walter Long. They 
had at first silver pipes, the ordinary sort made use of a walnut shell 
and a straw. I have heard my grandfather Lyte say, that one pipe 
was handed from man to man round the table. Sir Walter Raleigh, 
standing at a stand, at Sir Robert Poyntz parke, at Acton, took a 
pipe of tobacco, which made the ladies quit it till he had done. Within 
these thirty-five years,” he adds, (about 1630,) it was then sold for its 
weight in silver. Some of our old yeomen neighbours say, that when they 
went to Malmsbury or Chippenham market, they culled out their biggest 
shillings, to lay in the scales against the tobacco. Now, the customs 
of it are the greatest his naajesty Charles II. hath. 
The above tree, which is also called the Burr tree, or the Indian fig, is 
one of the most curious and beautiful of nature’s productions, in the 
genial climate of India, where she sports with the greatest variety 
and profusion. Each tree is in itself a grove ; and some of them are 
of an amazing size and extent, and, contrary to most other animal 
and vegetable productions, seem to be exempted from decay. Every 
branch from the main body, throws out its own roots ; at first, in small 
tender fibres, several yards from the ground ; these continually grow 
thicker, until by a gradual descent they reach the surface, and there 
striking in, they increase to large trunks, and become parent trees, 
shooting out new branches from the tops. A banian tree, with many 
trunks, forms the most beautiful walks, vistas, and cool recesses, that 
can be imagined. 
