"Here are clustered old and young, the snow white daughters of Circassia and the coal-black beauties of Soudan, and beguile the hours with never ending gossip, while around them rise the dense fumes of their pipes. Now one of the elders of the party tells a story, now a learned lady holds a discourse on religion, or extols the beauty and virtue of 'Aisha Fatima.'" The Fairy, or Dane's pipe is the most ancient form of the tobacco pipe used in Great Britain and of about the same size as the "Elfin pipes" of the Scottish peasantry. A great variety of pipes both in form and size have been found in the British Islands some of which are of ancient origin bearing dates prior to the Seventeenth Century. Some of these ancient pipes are formed of very fine clay and although they held but a small quantity of tobacco were doubtless considered to be fine specimens in their time. The manufacture of pipes commenced soon after the custom of using tobacco had become fashionable and soon after the Virginians commenced its cultivation. Fairholt says: [Illustration: Old English pipes.] "The early period at which tobacco pipes were first manufactured, is established by the fact that the incorporation of the craft of tobacco-pipe makers took place on the 5th of October, 1619. Their privileges extending through the cities of London and Westminster, the kingdom of England and dominion of Wales. They have a Master, four Wardens, and about twenty-four Assistants. They were first incorporated by King James in his seventeenth year, confirmed again by King Charles I., and lastly on the twenty-ninth of April in the fifteenth year of King Charles II., in all the privileges of their aforesaid charters. "The London Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers was incorporated in the reign of Charles II (1663); it had no hall and no livery but was governed by a Master two wardens, and eighteen assistants. The first pipes used in the British Islands were made of silver while 'ordinary ones' were made of a walnut shell and a straw. Afterwards appeared the more common clay pipes in various forms and which are in use at the present time." During the reign of Anne and George I. the pipes assumed a different form and greater length so long were the stems of some of them that they were called yards of clay. The French pipe is one of the finest manufactured and is made of a fine red clay especially those made by Fiolet of St. Omer, one of the best designers of pipes. Many of these like German pipes are made of porcelain, adorned with portraits and landscapes. Others are made of rare kinds of wood turned in the lathe or artistically carved, and lined with clay to resist the action of fire.