"There is also a simple and ingenious tobacco-box used frequently in ale-houses, 'which keeps its own account,' with each smoker and acts also as a money-box. It is kept on parlor tables for the use of all comers; but none can obtain a pipe-full, till the money is deposited through a hole in the lid. A penny dropped in, causes a bolt to unfasten, and allow the smoker to help himself from a drawer full of tobacco. His honor is trusted so far as not to take more than his pipe-full, and he is reminded of it by a verse engraved on the lid:-- 'The custom is, before you fill, 'To put a penny in the till.'" [Illustration: Engraved boxes.] Some of the tobacco boxes were made of silver and beautifully engraved with fancy sketches, historical scenes, or representations of personages, landscapes, flowers, etc. The late Duke of Sussex had a large collection of pipes and tobacco boxes. A journal describing them says of the collection: "The Duke of Sussex had a wonderful collection of these, the values attached to some of them being almost fabulous. One example from the work-shop of Vienna--long celebrated for this description of art,--represented the combat of Hector and Achilles, the cover of the pipe being a golden hemlet cristatus of the Grecian type." Swiss and Tyrolean artists also produce exquisite carving, but use wood as a material; and in the famous collection of Baron de Watteville will be found a marvelous piece of carving representing Bellerophon overturning the Chimera. But French pipes are the most interesting of all to collectors, from the fact that tobacco was introduced into that country long before it was known in England, and also from the ingenuity of a people who can give interest of various kinds to what might seem a simple and prosaic branch of manufacture. In the sentiment of the following lines on "A pipe of Tobacco" by John Usher, all lovers of the plant will heartily join: "Let the toper regale in his tankard of ale, Or with alcohol moisten his thropple, Only give me I pray, a good pipe of soft clay, Nicely tapered, and thin in the stopple; And I shall puff, puff, let who will say enough, No luxury else I'm in lack o', No malice I hoard, 'gainst Queen, Prince, Duke or Lord, While I pull at my pipe of Tobacco. "When I feel the hot strife of the battle of life, And the prospect is aught but enticin', Mayhap some real ill like a protested bill, Dims the sunshine that tinged the horizon; Only let me puff, puff,--be they ever so rough, All the sorrows of life I lose track o', The mists disappear, and the vista is clear, With a soothing mild pipe of Tobacco.