Preachers of all sections of the religious world delighted in a pinch of
snuff. Sneezing was heard in the highest and humblest churches, and it
even made St. Peter's at Rome echo. The practice so excited the ire of
Pope Innocent the Twelfth that he made an effort in 1690 to stop it in
his churches, and "solemnly excommunicated all who should dare to take
snuff." Tyerman, in his "Life of Wesley," tells us the great trouble the
famous preacher had with his early converts. "Many of them were absolutely
enslaved to snuff; some drank drams, &c., to remedy such evils, the
preachers were enjoined on no account to take snuff, or to drink drams
themselves; and were to speak to any one they saw snuffing in sermon time,
and to answer the pretence that drams cured the colic and helped
digestion." Mr. Wesley cautioned a preacher going to Ireland against
snuff, unless by order of a physician, declaring that no people were in
such blind bondage to the silly, nasty, dirty custom as were the Irish. It
is stated so far did Irishmen carry their love of snuffing, that it was
customary, when a wake was on, to put a plate full of snuff upon the dead
man's, or woman's stomach, from which each guest was expected to take a
pinch upon being introduced to the corpse.
In the earlier days of snuff-taking, people generally ground their own
snuff by rubbing roll tobacco across a small grater, usually fixed inside
the snuff-box. We find in old-time writings many allusions to making
snuff from roll tobacco. In course of time snuff was flavoured with rich
essences, and scented snuffs found favour with the ladies. The man of
refinement prided himself on his taste for perfumed powder. We find it
stated in Fairholt's book on "Tobacco," that in the reign of William III.
the beaux carried canes with hollow heads, that they might the more
conveniently inhale a few grains through the perforations, as they
sauntered in the fashionable promenades. Women quickly followed the lead
of men in snuffing, in spite of satire in the _Spectator_ and other papers
of the period. The list of famous snuff-takers of the olden time is a long
one, and only a few can be noticed here. Queen Charlotte heads the roll.
She was persistent in the practice, and her unfilial and rude sons called
her "Old Snuff." Captain Gronow, when a boy at Eton, saw the Queen in
company with the King taking an airing on the Terrace at Windsor, and
relates "that her royal nose was covered with snuff both within and
without." Mrs. Siddons, "the queen of tragedy," largely indulged in the
use of snuff, both on and off the stage, even while taking her more
important characters. Mrs. Jordan, another "stage star," a representative
of the comic muse, obtained animation from frequent use of snuff. Mrs.
Unwin, the friend of Cowper, was extremely fond of it, and so was the
poet, yet he was not a smoker. On snuff he wrote as follows:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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