y, including, no
doubt, abundant smoking.

The arrival of coffee and the establishment of coffee-houses opened a
new field for the victories of tobacco. The first house was opened in
St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, in 1652. Others soon followed, and in a
short time the new beverage had captured the town, and coffee-houses
had been opened in every direction. They sold many things besides
coffee, and served a variety of purposes, but primarily they were
temples of talk and good-fellowship. The buzz of conversation and the
smoke of tobacco alike filled the rooms which were the forerunners of
the club-houses of a much later day.

VI

SMOKING UNDER KING WILLIAM III AND QUEEN ANNE

Hail! social pipe--thou foe of care,
Companion of my elbow-chair;
As forth thy curling fumes arise,
They seem an evening sacrifice--
An offering to my Maker's praise,
For all His benefits and grace.

SIR SAMUEL GARTH (1660-1718).

After King William III was settled on the throne the sum of L600,000
was paid to the Dutch from the English exchequer for money advanced in
connexion with his Majesty's expedition, and this amount was paid off
by tobacco duties. Granger long ago remarked that most of the eminent
divines and bishops of the day contributed very practically to the
payment of this revolutionary debt by their large consumption of
tobacco. He mentions Isaac Barrow, Dr. Barlow of Lincoln, who was as
regular in smoking tobacco as at his meals, and had a high opinion of
its virtues, Dr. Aldrich, "and other celebrated persons who flourished
about this time, and gave much into that practice." One of the best
known of these celebrated persons was Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of
Salisbury from 1689, and historian of his own times. He had the
reputation of being an inveterate smoker, and was caricatured with a
long clay stuck through the brim of the shovel hat, on the breadth of
which King William once made remark. The bishop replied that the hat
was of a shape suited to his dignity, whereupon the King caustically
said, "I hope that the hat won't turn your head."

Thackeray pictures Dryden as sitting in his great chair at Will's
Coffee-house, Russell Street, Covent Garden, tobacco-pipe in hand; but
there is no evidence that Dryden smoked. The snuff-box was his symbol
of authority. Budding wits thought themselves highly distinguished if
they could obtain the honour of being allowed to take a pinch from it.