The fumes of dried coltsfoot leaves were used as a remedy in cases of
difficulty of breathing, both in ancient Roman times and in Tudor
England. Lyte, in his translation, 1578, of Dodoens' "Historie of
Plants," says of coltsfoot: "The parfume of the dryed leaves layde
upon quicke coles, taken into the mouth through the pipe of a funnell,
or tunnell, helpeth suche as are troubled with the shortnesse of
winde, and fetche their breath thicke or often, and do [_sic_] breake
without daunger the impostems of the breast." The leaves of coltsfoot
and of other plants have often been used as a substitute for tobacco
in modern days. A correspondent of _Notes and Queries_, in 1897, said
that when he was a boy he knew an old Calvinist minister, who used to
smoke a dried mixture of the leaves of horehound, yarrow and "foal's
foot" intermingled with a small quantity of tobacco. He said it was a
very good substitute for the genuine article. Similar mixtures, or the
leaves of coltsfoot alone, have often been smoked in bygone days by
folk who could not afford to smoke tobacco only.

The number of shops where tobacco was sold in the early days of its
triumph seems to have been extraordinary. Barnaby Rich, one of the
most prolific parents of pamphlets in an age of prolific writers,
wrote a satire on "The Honestie of this Age," which was printed in
1614. In this production Rich declares that every fellow who came into
an ale-house and called for his pot, must have his pipe also, for
tobacco was then a commodity as much sold in every tavern, inn and
ale-house as wine, ale, or beer. He goes on to say that apothecaries'
shops, grocers' shops, and chandlers' shops were (almost) never
without company who from morning to night were still taking tobacco;
and what a number there are besides, he adds, "that doe keepe houses,
set open shoppes, that have no other trade to live by but by the
selling of tobacco." Rich says he had been told that a list had been
recently made of all the houses that traded in tobacco in and near
about London, and that if a man might believe what was confidently
reported, there were found to be upwards of 7000 houses that lived by
that trade; but he could not say whether the apothecaries', grocers'
and chandlers' shops, where tobacco was also sold, were included in
that number. He proceeds to calculate what the annual expenditure on
smoke must be. The number of 7000 seems very large and is perhaps
exaggerated. Round numb