Neath George's heir you'll find him doing still._

It seems to have been taken for granted that country parsons smoked.
Smoking was universal among their male parishioners from the squire to
the labourer (when he could afford it), so that it was only natural
that the parson, with little to do, and in those days not too much
inclination to do it, should be as fond of his pipe as the rest of the
world around him. In a _World_ of 1756 there is an account of a
country gentleman entertaining one evening the vicar of the parish,
and the host as a matter of course proceeds to order a bottle of wine
with pipes and tobacco to be placed on the table. The vicar forthwith
"filled his pipe, and drank very cordially to my friend," his host.
One cannot doubt that Laurence Sterne, that most remarkable of country
parsons, smoked. His "My Uncle Toby" is among the immortals, and Toby
without his pipe is unimaginable.

The most famous of country clergymen of the early Georgian period is,
of course, Fielding's lovable and immortal Parson Adams. Throughout
"Joseph Andrews" the parson smokes at every opportunity. At his first
appearance on the scene, in the inn kitchen, he calls for a pipe of
tobacco before taking his place at the fireside. The next morning,
when he fails to obtain a desired loan from the landlord, Adams,
extremely dejected at his disappointment, immediately applies to his
pipe, "his constant friend and comfort in his affliction," and leans
over the rails of the gallery overlooking the inn-yard, devoting
himself to meditation, "assisted by the inspiring fumes of tobacco."
Later on, in the parlour of the country Justice of the Peace, who
condemned his prisoners before he had taken the depositions of the
witnesses against them, and who, by the way, also lit his pipe while
his clerk performed this necessary duty, Adams, when his character has
been cleared, sits down with the company and takes a cheerful glass
and applies himself vigorously to smoking. A few hours later, when the
parson, Fanny, and their guide are driven by a storm of rain to take
shelter in a wayside ale-house, Adams "immediately procured himself a
good fire, a toast and ale, and a pipe, and began to smoke with great
content, utterly forgetting everything that had happened." In the same
inn, after Mrs. Slipslop has appeared and disappeared, Adams smokes
three pipes and takes "a comfortable nap in a great chair," so leaving
the lovers, Joseph and Fanny, to enjoy