The Social History of SmokingApperson, George Latimer
History
The Social History of Smoking
Apperson, George Latimer
Smoking
Dr. Farmer was elected Master of Emmanuel in 1775. Years before he had
held the curacy of Swavesey, about nine miles out of Cambridge, where
he regularly performed the duty. After morning service it was his
custom to repair to the local public-house where he enjoyed a
mutton-chop and potatoes. Immediately after the removal of the cloth,
"Mr. Dobson (his churchwarden) and one or two of the principal
farmers, made their appearance, to whom he invariably said, 'I am
going to read prayers, but shall be back by the time you have made
the punch.' Occasionally another farmer accompanied him from church,
when pipes and tobacco"--with the punch--"were in requisition until 6
o'clock." The Sabbath afternoon thus satisfactorily concluded, Farmer
returned to college in Cambridge and took a nap, till at nine he went
to the parlour of the college where the Fellows usually assembled, and
pipes and tobacco concluded a well-spent day.
In the fashionable world the snuff-box was all-powerful. The Prince
Regent was devoted to snuff, but disdained tobacco. He had a "cellar
of snuff," which after his death was sold, said _John Bull_, August
15, 1830, "to a well-known purveyor, for £400." Lord Petersham, famous
among dandies, made a wonderful collection of snuffs and snuff-boxes,
and was curious in his choice of a box to carry. Gronow relates that
once when a light Sèvres snuff-box which Lord Petersham was using, was
admired, the noble owner replied, with a gentle lisp--"Yes, it is a
nice summer box--but would certainly be inappropriate for winter
wear!" The well-known purveyor who bought the Prince Regent's cellar
of snuff, and who bought also Lord Petersham's stock, was the Fribourg
of Fribourg and Treyer, whose well-known old-fashioned shop at the top
of the Haymarket, with a bow-window on each side of the door, still
gives an eighteenth-century flavour to that thoroughfare. All the
dandies of the period were connoisseurs of snuff, and imitated the
royal mirror of fashion in their devotion to the scented powder. Young
Charles Stanhope wrote to his brother on November 5, 1812--"I have
learnt to take snuff among other fashionable acquirements, a custom
which, of course, you have learnt and will be able to keep me in
countenance." But no dandies or young men of fashion smoked. Tobacco,
save in the disguise of snuff, was tabooed.
Smoking was frowned upon, even in places where hitherto it had been
allowed. In 1812 the authorities of Sion College ordered "that Coffee
and Tea be provided in the Parlour for the Visitors and Incumbents,
and in the Court Room for the Curates and Lecturers; and that Pipes
and Tobacco be not allowed; and that no Wine be at any time carried
into the Court Room, nor any into the Hall after Coffee and Tea shall
have been ordered on that day."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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