DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0288
248 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
may climb the Jura, dip into the pastoral valleys of Switzerland, and ascend, without fear
of disappointment from clouds or tempest, the loftiest summit of Mont Blanc; sail upon
the peaceful lakes, and rove among the vineyards of the south; pass over into classic
Italy, and wend our way to the Eternal City, without apprehension of extortionate
douaniers, fleecing landlords, or ruthless brigands. We may trust ourselves upon the bay
of Naples, even in its stormiest mood—for that pezzo di cielo is not always exempt from
trouble—visit its azure grotto, mount up to Vesuvius, peep into its fearful abyss, and, in
our way down, tread over the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, although we enter not
the subterranean cities. But we must pause in our career, or our readers may complain
of the distance and difficulty of return. One word to those who have extensive libraries:—
none of them can be considered as complete without a good assortment of Model or
Relief Maps.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PIPES AND AMBER MANUFACTURES.
TOBACCO—DR. JOHNSON—LORD BYRON—DIEFERENT KINDS OF PTPES—MEEESCHAT/M—AMBER—■
METHOD OE OBTAINING—VARIETIES OE----PIPES—GERMANY—BRITISH COLONIES—PRIMITIVE
PIPES OE INDIA----CHINA—EEANCE—TURKEY, &C. &C.—SNUEF-BOXES—POUNCET-BOX—SCOTCH
MULL—CUMNOCK BOXES—-AUSTRIAN, CHINESE, AND INDIAN BOXES, &C.
" Boy, bring an ounce of Freeman's best."
Such was the exclamatiorvof Dr. Jonathan Swift, in the days of "good Queen Anne,"
when the use of the "Indian weed" was universal in our island, when the poet and the
philosopher alike owned its inspiration, and when the clergy, the quorum, and the squire-
archy vied with each other in their devotion to the pipe and the bowl. Dr. Johnson,
however, observes, that there was less drinking in his time than there was among our
ancestors, owing to the change from ale to wine. " I remember," says he, " when all
decent people in Lichfield got drunk every night and were not the worse thought of.
Smoking has gone out. To he sure, it is a shocking thing, blowing smoke out of our
mouths into other people's months, eyes, and noses, and having the same thing done to
us. Yet I cannot account, why a thing which requires so little exertion, and yet preserves
the mind from total vacuity, should have gone out." Had the worthy doctor lived to
the present time he would have seen the custom very generally renewed among all classes
of the people. The poor as well as the rich, the young as well as the old, have adopted
the practice of smoking; and although it has been denounced by the hygeist, as well as
by the sterner moralist, it is still unchecked among us, "viresque acquirit eundo." Nay,
some of our most esteemed poets have been lavish in their praises of the soothing
intoxication—witness the testimony of the noble bard, whose muse, we regret to say, is
not always on the side of decent propriety; however eloquently he may advocate the habit,
to which he himself was so strongly addicted. We quote the well-known lines from his
poem of the Corsair:—
" But here the herald of the self-same mouth
Came breathing o'er the aromatic south,
Not like a " bed of violets" on the gale,
But such as wafts its cloud o'er grog or ale,
Borne from a short frail pipe, which yet had blown
Its gentle odours over either zone,
may climb the Jura, dip into the pastoral valleys of Switzerland, and ascend, without fear
of disappointment from clouds or tempest, the loftiest summit of Mont Blanc; sail upon
the peaceful lakes, and rove among the vineyards of the south; pass over into classic
Italy, and wend our way to the Eternal City, without apprehension of extortionate
douaniers, fleecing landlords, or ruthless brigands. We may trust ourselves upon the bay
of Naples, even in its stormiest mood—for that pezzo di cielo is not always exempt from
trouble—visit its azure grotto, mount up to Vesuvius, peep into its fearful abyss, and, in
our way down, tread over the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, although we enter not
the subterranean cities. But we must pause in our career, or our readers may complain
of the distance and difficulty of return. One word to those who have extensive libraries:—
none of them can be considered as complete without a good assortment of Model or
Relief Maps.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PIPES AND AMBER MANUFACTURES.
TOBACCO—DR. JOHNSON—LORD BYRON—DIEFERENT KINDS OF PTPES—MEEESCHAT/M—AMBER—■
METHOD OE OBTAINING—VARIETIES OE----PIPES—GERMANY—BRITISH COLONIES—PRIMITIVE
PIPES OE INDIA----CHINA—EEANCE—TURKEY, &C. &C.—SNUEF-BOXES—POUNCET-BOX—SCOTCH
MULL—CUMNOCK BOXES—-AUSTRIAN, CHINESE, AND INDIAN BOXES, &C.
" Boy, bring an ounce of Freeman's best."
Such was the exclamatiorvof Dr. Jonathan Swift, in the days of "good Queen Anne,"
when the use of the "Indian weed" was universal in our island, when the poet and the
philosopher alike owned its inspiration, and when the clergy, the quorum, and the squire-
archy vied with each other in their devotion to the pipe and the bowl. Dr. Johnson,
however, observes, that there was less drinking in his time than there was among our
ancestors, owing to the change from ale to wine. " I remember," says he, " when all
decent people in Lichfield got drunk every night and were not the worse thought of.
Smoking has gone out. To he sure, it is a shocking thing, blowing smoke out of our
mouths into other people's months, eyes, and noses, and having the same thing done to
us. Yet I cannot account, why a thing which requires so little exertion, and yet preserves
the mind from total vacuity, should have gone out." Had the worthy doctor lived to
the present time he would have seen the custom very generally renewed among all classes
of the people. The poor as well as the rich, the young as well as the old, have adopted
the practice of smoking; and although it has been denounced by the hygeist, as well as
by the sterner moralist, it is still unchecked among us, "viresque acquirit eundo." Nay,
some of our most esteemed poets have been lavish in their praises of the soothing
intoxication—witness the testimony of the noble bard, whose muse, we regret to say, is
not always on the side of decent propriety; however eloquently he may advocate the habit,
to which he himself was so strongly addicted. We quote the well-known lines from his
poem of the Corsair:—
" But here the herald of the self-same mouth
Came breathing o'er the aromatic south,
Not like a " bed of violets" on the gale,
But such as wafts its cloud o'er grog or ale,
Borne from a short frail pipe, which yet had blown
Its gentle odours over either zone,