The Social History of SmokingApperson, George Latimer
History
The Social History of Smoking
Apperson, George Latimer
Smoking
After the suppression of the Jacobite uprising of 1745, the English
Government made war on Scottish nationality, and among other measures
the wearing of the highland dress was forbidden by Parliament. On this
occasion the following paragraph appeared in the newspapers of the
time: "We hear that the dapper wooden Highlanders, who guard so
heroically the doors of snuff-shops, intend to petition the
Legislature, in order that they may be excused from complying with the
Act of Parliament with regard to their change of dress: alledging that
they have ever been faithful subjects to his Majesty, having
constantly supplied his Guards with a pinch out of their Mulls when
they marched by them, and so far from engaging in any Rebellion, that
they have never entertained a rebellious thought; whence they humbly
hope that they shall not be put to the expense of buying new cloaths."
This is not a very humorous production, but at least it bears witness
to the common occurrence in 1746 of the highlander's figure at the
shops of snuff and tobacco-sellers.
The highlander, as he existed within living memory at many shop doors,
and as he still exists at a few, was and is the survivor of many
similar wooden figures as trade signs. The wooden figure of a negro or
"Indian" with gilt loin-cloth and feathered head, has already been
mentioned as an old tobacconist's sign. In early Georgian days a
tobacconist named John Bowden, who dealt in all kinds of snuff, and
also in "Aloe, Pigtail, and Wild Tobacco; with all sorts of
perfumer's goods, wholesale and retail," traded at the sign of "The
Highlander and Black Boy" in Threadneedle Street, London. At York, in
this present year, 1914, I came upon a brightly painted wooden figure
of Napoleon in full uniform and snuff-box in hand, standing at the
door of a small tobacco-shop. Another class of sign or emblem was
represented by the "wooden midshipman," which many of us have seen in
Leadenhall Street, and which Dickens made famous in "Dombey and Son."
Sometimes the wooden figure of a sailor stood outside public-houses
with such signs as "The Jolly Sailor"; and a black doll was long a
familiar token of the loathly shop kept by the tradesmen mysteriously
known as Marine Store Dealers. Images of this kind sometimes stood at
the door, or in many cases were placed on brackets or swung from the
lintels.
Sir Walter Scott said that in London a Scotchman would walk half a
mile farther to purchase his ounce of snuff where the sign of the
Highlander announced a North Briton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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