he calls it) she disliked "the custome of the country which
is a universal smoaking; both men, women, and children have all their
pipes of tobacco in their mouths and soe sit round the fire smoaking,
which was not delightful to me when I went down to talk with my
Landlady for information of any matter and customes amongst them."
What would King James have thought of these depraved Cornish folk?
Other witnesses bear testimony to the prevalence of smoking among
women in the west of England. Dunton, in that _Athenian Oracle_ which
was a kind of early forerunner of _Notes and Queries_, alluded to
pipe-smoking by "the good Women and Children in the West." Misson, the
French traveller, who was here in 1698, after remarking that
"Tabacco" is very much used in England, says that "the very Women take
it in abundance, particularly in the Western Counties. But why the
_very_ Women? What Occasion is there for that _very_? We wonder that
in certain Places it should be common for Women to take Tabacco; and
why should we wonder at it? The Women of Devonshire and Cornwall
wonder that the Women of Middlesex do _not_ take Tabacco: And why
should they wonder at it? In truth, our Wonderments are very pleasant
Things!" And with that sage and satisfactory conclusion to his
catechism we may leave M. Misson, though he goes on to philosophize
about the effect of smoking by the English clergy upon their theology!

Another French visitor to our shores, M. Jorevin, whose rare book of
travels was published at Paris in 1672, was wandering in the west of
England about the year 1666, and in the course of his journey stayed
at the Stag Inn at Worcester, where he found he had to make himself
quite at home with the family of his hostess. He tells us that
according to the custom of the country the landladies sup with
strangers and passengers, and if they have daughters, these also are
of the company to entertain the guests at table with pleasant conceits
where they drink as much as the men. But what quite disgusted our
visitor was "that when one drinks the health of any person in company,
the custom of the country does not permit you to drink more than half
the cup, which is filled up and presented to him or her whose health
you have drunk. Moreover, the supper being finished, they set on the
table half a dozen pipes, and a packet of tobacco, for smoking, which
is a general custom as well among women as men, who think that
without tobacco one cannot live