orm of a "cicada" of paper,
and, on the whole, it is highly probable that the likeness of the roll
of tobacco-leaf to the cylindrical body of the insect (_cigarra_) was
the reason that the "cigarro" was so called. There is no warrant of
any kind for "segar."

The earliest mention of cigars in English occurs in a book dated 1735.
A traveller in Spanish America, named Cockburn, whose narrative was
published in that year, describes how he met three friars at
Nicaragua, who, he says, "gave us some Seegars to smoke ... these are
Leaves of Tobacco rolled up in such Manner that they serve both for a
Pipe and Tobacco itself ... they know no other way here, for there is
no such Thing as a Tobacco-Pipe throughout New Spain."

Cheroots seem to have been known somewhat earlier. The earliest
mention of them is dated about 1670. Sir James Murray, in the great
Oxford Dictionary, gives the following interesting extract from an
unpublished MS. relating to India, written between 1669 and 1679: "The
Poore Sort of Inhabitants vizt. yet Gentues, Mallabars, &c., Smoke
theire Tobacco after a very meane, but I judge Original manner, Onely
ye leafe rowled up, and light one end, holdinge ye other between their
lips ... this is called a bunko, and by ye Portugals a Cheroota." The
condemnation of cheroot-or cigar-smoking as a mean method of taking
tobacco has an odd look in the light of modern habits and customs.

The use of cigars in this country began to come in early in the last
century; and by at least 1830 they were being freely, if privately,
smoked. It is probable that the reduction of the duty on cigars from
18s. to 9s. a lb., in 1829, had its effect in making cigars more
popular. Croker, in 1831, commenting on Johnson's saying that smoking
had gone out, said: "The taste for smoking, however, has revived,
probably from the military habits of Europe during the French wars;
but instead of the sober sedentary pipe, the ambulatory cigar is
chiefly used." Croker's shrewd suggestion was probably not far wide of
the truth. It is quite likely, if not highly probable, that the
revival of smoking in the shape of the cigar was directly connected
with the experiences of British officers in Spain and Portugal during
the Peninsular War.

One of the earliest cigar-smokers must have been that remarkable
clergyman, the Rev. Charles Caleb Colton, whose "Lacon," published in
1820, was once popular. Colton was in succession Rector of Tiverton
and Vicar o