A more robust, nay, hilarious, spirit pervades the utterances of Dr. Henry Aldrich, Dean of Christchurch, Oxford, who in devotion to the weed surpassed even Dr. Parr of cloud-compelling fame. The genial don had found in the pipe a solace for his somewhat fretful temperament; it disposed him to look upon life with the benevolent composure of a mind at peace with the world. Indeed, the love he bore his pipe, says his biographer, Sir John Hawkins, was so excessive as to be an entertaining topic of discourse in the University. The belief that the Dean and his pipe were inseparable, led to wagers being laid on the chance of finding him without it. With the keen wits for fun and mischief, characteristic of schoolboys, students would now and then warily peer into his sanctum at early morn or dewy eve, in the hope of settling the disputed point. On one occasion the doctor, learning the object of their visit at an early hour in the morning, readily fell in with their humour, and declared to the foremost boy, that, ‘Your friend has lost. I am not smoking, only filling my pipe.’ The Dean’s geniality comes out well in his humorous ‘Catch on Tobacco,’ which appeared in his second book of _The Pleasant Musical Companion_, published in 1687. He tells us that it is ‘to be sung by four men at the time of smoking their pipes.’ The first verse is as follows:— Good! good, indeed! The herb’s good weed; Fill thy pipe, Will, and I prithee, Sam, fill, For sure we may smoke and yet sing still; For what say the learned? _Vita fumus_, ’Tis what you and I, and he and I, and all of us _sumus_. If the so-called ‘Smoking Concerts’ of to-day were carried out in strict accordance with the founder’s instructions, each being supplied with the legitimate materials, the public would then get the amusement implied in the designation, ‘Smoking Concert.’ Before taking leave of the amiable Dean, it is but just to his memory to say a word on his higher claims to admiration. It is recorded of him that he distinguished himself in every branch of divine and human learning; that he promoted religion and virtue with application and zeal during his tenure of office at the noble college of Christchurch, much of whose present lustre and beauty it owes to his efforts. His biographer ranks him among the greatest masters in the composition of church music; his anthems number about twenty. Yet, being a man of genial humour, he found diversion for his leisure moments in the production of pieces of a lighter description, as, ‘Hark! the bonny Christchurch Bells,’ which at one time had a great vogue. CHAPTER X. THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY AND SMOKING PIPES.