The Social History of SmokingApperson, George Latimer
History
The Social History of Smoking
Apperson, George Latimer
Smoking
In the whole sixteen volumes of Walpole's correspondence, as so
admirably edited by Mrs. Toynbee, there is scarcely a mention of
tobacco; and the same may be said of other collections of letters of
the same period--the Selwyn letters, the Delany correspondence, and so
on. Neither Walpole nor any member of the world in which he lived
would appear to have smoked. In Miss Burney's "Evelina," 1778, from
the beginning to the end of the book there is no mention whatever of
tobacco or of smoking. Apparently the vulgar Branghtons were not
vulgar enough to smoke. Such use of tobacco was considered low, and
was confined to the classes of society indicated in the preceding
chapter. One of the characters in Macklin's "Love à la Mode," 1760, is
described as "dull, dull as an alderman, after six pounds of turtle,
four bottles of port, and twelve pipes of tobacco."
A satirical print by Rowlandson contains _A Man of Fashion's Journal_,
dated May 1, 1802. The "man of fashion" rides and drinks, goes to the
play, gambles and bets, but his journal contains no reference to
smoking. Rowlandson himself smoked, and so did his brother
caricaturist, Gillray. Angelo says that they would sometimes meet at
such resorts of the "low" as the Bell, the Coal Hole, or the Coach and
Horses, and would enter into the common chat of the room, smoke and
drink together, and then "sometimes early, sometimes late, shake hands
at the door--look up at the stars, say it is a pretty night, and
depart, one for the Adelphi, the other to St. James's Street, each to
his bachelor's bed."
But outside the fashionable world pipes were still in full blast, and
in many places of resort the atmosphere was as beclouded with
tobacco-smoke as in earlier days. Grosley, in his "Tour to London,"
1765, says that there were regular clubs, which were held in
coffee-houses and taverns at fixed days and hours, when wine, beer,
tea, pipes and tobacco helped to amuse the company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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