in." At social gatherings the snuff-mull was constantly passed round, and
we are told that each guest left traces of its use on the table, on his
knees, the folds of his dress, and on the floor. The preacher's voice was
impaired with excessive indulgence in snuff.
Long before the English visitor had written his book on Scotland, attempts
had been made to prohibit snuff-taking in church. At the Kirk Session of
St. Cuthbert's, held on June 18, 1640, it was decided that every
snuff-taker in church be amerced in "twenty shillings for everie falt."
Under date of April 11, 1641, it is stated in the Kirk Session records of
Soulton as follows:--"Statute with consent of the ministers and elders,
that every one that takes snuff in tyme of Divine Service shall pay 6s.
8d., and give one public confession of his fault." At Dunfermline, the
Kirk Session had this matter under consideration, and the bellman was
directed "to tak notice of those who tak the sneising tobacco in tyme of
Divine Service, and to inform concerning them." A writer in a popular
periodical, in a chapter on "The Divine Weed," makes a mistake, we think,
presuming people smoked in church in bygone days. "At one period in the
history of tobacco," says the contributor, "smoking was so common that it
was actually practised in church." Previous to the visit of James the
First to the University of Cambridge, in 1615, the Vice-Chancellor issued
a notice to the students, which enjoined that "Noe graduate, scholler, or
student of this Universitie presume to take tobacco in Saint Marie's
Church, uppon payne of finall expellinge the Universitie." The taking of
tobacco doubtless means using it in the form of snuff and not smoking it
in a pipe.
Later, and perhaps at the period under notice, a strong feeling prevailed
against smoking in the public streets. In the records of the Methwold
Manor, Norfolk, is an entry in the court books dated October 4, 1659, as
follows:--"Wee agree that any person that is taken smookeing tobacco in
the street, forfeit one shilling for every time so taken, and it shall be
put to the uses aforesaid (that is to the use of the towne). We present
Nicholas Barber for smoking in the street, and do amerce him one
shilling." At a parish meeting held at Winteringham, on January 6, 1685,
it was resolved:--"None shall smoke tobacco in the streets upon paine of
two shillings for every default." Schoolmasters were forbidden to smoke.
In the rules of Chigwell School, founded in 1629, only fourteen years
after the visit of James to Cambridge, it is stated:--"The master must be
a man of sound religion, neither Papist nor Puritan, of a grave behaviour,
and sober and honest conversation, no tippler, or haunter of alehouses,
and no puffer of tobacco."
We may come to the conclusion from the facts we have furnished, that if
persons were not permitted to smoke in the street, it is quite certain
they would not be allowed to do so in the house of prayer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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