d were it not sometimes lookt into (for Morat Bassa [Murad
III.?] not long since commanded a pipe to be thrust through the nose of
a Turke, and to be led in derision through the Citie), no question but
it would prove a principal commodity. Nevertheless they will take it in
corners; and are so ignorant therein, that that which in England is not
saleable, doth passe here among them for most excellent."

Mr. Stith ("History of Virginia," 1746) gives Raleigh credit for the
introduction of the pipe into good society, but he cautiously says, "We
are not informed whether the queen made use of it herself: but it is
certain she gave great countenance to it as a vegetable of singular
strength and power, which might therefore prove of benefit to mankind,
and advantage to the nation." Mr. Thomas Hariot, in his observations on
the colony at Roanoke, says that the natives esteemed their tobacco, of
which plenty was found, their "chief physicke."

It should be noted, as against the claim of Lane, that Stowe in his
"Annales" (1615) says: "Tobacco was first brought and made known in
England by Sir John Hawkins, about the year 1565, but not used by
Englishmen in many years after, though at this time commonly used by
most men and many women." In a side-note to the edition of 1631 we read:
"Sir Walter Raleigh was the first that brought tobacco in use, when all
men wondered what it meant." It was first commended for its medicinal
virtues. Harrison's "Chronologie," under date of 1573, says: "In these
daies the taking in of the smoke of the Indian herbe called 'Tabaco' by
an instrument formed like a little ladell, whereby it passeth from the
mouth into the hed and stomach, is gretlie taken-up and used in England,
against Rewmes and some other diseases ingendred in the longes and
inward partes, and not without effect." But Barnaby Rich, in "The
Honestie of this Age," 1614, disagrees with Harrison about its benefit:
"They say it is good for a cold, for a pose, for rewmes, for aches, for
dropsies, and for all manner of diseases proceeding of moyst humours;
but I cannot see but that those that do take it fastest are as much (or
more) subject to all these infirmities (yea, and to the poxe itself)
as those that have nothing at all to do with it." He learns that 7,000
shops in London live by the trade of tobacco-selling, and calculates
that there is paid for it L 399,375 a year, "all spent in smoake." Every
base groom must have his pipe with his pot