ne at
11 o'clock, after which he smoked a pipe and then lay down and took a
nap of about half an hour. No doubt he would have attributed the
length of his days to the regularity of his habits. Izaak Walton, who
also lived to be ninety, as the lover of the placid and contemplative
life deserved to do, loved his pipe, though he seldom mentions smoking
in the "Compleat Angler." Sir Samuel Garth, poet and physician, once
known to fame as the author of "The Dispensary," was another
pipe-lover, as is shown by his verses quoted at the head of this
chapter. Dudley, the fourth Lord North, began to smoke in 1657, and,
says Dr. Jessopp, "the habit grew upon him, the frequent entries for
pipes and tobacco showing that he became more and more addicted to
this indulgence. Probably it afforded him some solace in the dreadful
malady from which he suffered so long."

Even the staid Quakers smoked. George Fox's position in regard to
tobacco was curious. He did not smoke himself; but on one occasion he
was offered a pipe by a jesting youth who thought thereby to shock so
saintly a person. Fox says in his "Journal," "I lookt upon him to bee
a forwarde bolde lad: and tobacco I did not take: butt ... I saw hee
had a flashy empty notion of religion: soe I took his pipe and putt it
to my mouth and gave it to him again to stoppe him lest his rude
tongue should say I had not unity with ye creation." The incident is
curious, but testifies to Fox's tolerance and breadth of outlook.

Many of his followers smoked, sometimes apparently to such an extent
as to cause scandal among their brethren. The following is an entry in
the minutes of the Friends' Monthly Meeting at Hardshaw, Lancashire:
"14th of 4th mo. 1691. It being considered that the too frequent use
of smoking Tobacco is inconsistent with friends holy profession, it is
desired that such as have occasion to make use thereof take it
privately, neither too publicly in their own houses, nor by the
highways, streets, or in alehouses or elsewhere, tending to the
abetting the common excess." Another Lancashire Monthly Meeting,
Penketh, under date "18th 8th mo. 1691" suggested that Friends were
"not to smoke during their labour or occupation, but to leave their
work and take it privately"--a suggestion which clearly proceeded from
non-smokers. The smug propriety of these recommendations to enjoy a
smoke in private is delightful.

At the Quarterly Meeting of Aberdeen Friends in 1692 a "weighty pap