ers are apt to be over rather than under the
mark.

Another proof of the extraordinary popularity of the new habit is to
be found in the fact that by the seventeenth year of the reign of
James I--the arch-enemy of tobacco--that is, by 1620, the Society of
Tobacco-pipe-makers had become so very numerous and considerable a
body that they were incorporated by royal charter, and bore on their
shield a tobacco plant in full blossom. The Society's motto was
happily chosen--"Let brotherly love continue."

A further witness to the prevalence of smoking and to the enormous
number of tobacco-sellers' shops is Camden, the antiquary. In his
"Annales," 1625, he remarks with curious detail that since its
introduction--"that Indian plant called Tobacco, or Nicotiana, is
growne so frequent in use and of such price, that many, nay, the most
part, with an insatiable desire doe take of it, drawing into their
mouth the smoke thereof, which is of a strong scent, through a pipe
made of earth, and venting of it againe through their nose; some for
wantownesse, or rather fashion sake, and other for health sake,
insomuch that Tobacco shops are set up in greater number than either
Alehouses or Tavernes."

One result of the herb's popularity was found in frequent attempts by
tradesmen of various kinds to sell it without being duly licensed to
do so. Mr. W.G. Bell, in his valuable book on "Fleet Street in Seven
Centuries," mentions the arrest of a Fleet Street grocer by the Star
Chamber for unlicensed trading in tobacco. He also quotes from the St.
Dunstan's Wardmote Register of 1630 several cases of complaint against
unlicensed traders and others. Four men were presented "for selling
ale and tobacco unlicensed, and for annoying the Judges of Serjeants
Inn whose chambers are near adjoyning." Two other men, one of them
hailing from the notorious Ram Alley, were presented "for annoying the
Judges at Serjeants Inn with the stench and smell of their tobacco,"
which looks as if the Judges were of King James's mind about smoking.
The same Register of 1630 records the presentment of two men of the
same family name--Thomas Bouringe and Philip Bouringe--"for keeping
open their shops and selling tobacco at unlawful hours, and having
disorderly people in their house to the great disturbance of all the
inhabitants and neighbours near adjoining." The Ram Alley, Fleet
Street, mentioned above, was notorious in sundry ways. Mr. Bell
mentions that in 1618 the w