to distrane for the same for to be putt to the uses abovesaid [i.e. “to the use of the town"].  Wee present Nicholas Baker for smoakeinge in the street, and doe amerce him 1s.”  The same rule is repeated at courts held in the years 1696 and 1699, but no other fine is mentioned at any subsequent courts.  The good folk at Methwold may have been adepts at petty tyranny, but such an absurd regulation must soon have become a dead letter.  While we are in the eastern counties we may note that in 1694 there died at Ely an apothecary named Henry Crofts, who owned, among some other unusual items in his inventory, casks of brandy and tobacco, which shows that even at that date, when regular tobacconists’ shops for the sale of tobacco had long been common, the old business connexion between apothecaries and tobacco still occasionally existed.

The clay pipes called “aldermen,” with longer stems than their predecessors, tipped with glaze, came into use towards the end of the seventeenth century.  They must not be confused with the much longer “churchwarden” or “yard of clay” which was not in vogue till the early years of the nineteenth century.

Towards the close of the seventeenth century signs may be detected of some waning in the universal popularity of tobacco.  There are hints of change in the records of City and other companies.  Tobacco had always figured prominently in the provision for trade feasts.  In 1651 the Chester Company of Barbers, Surgeons, Wax and Tallow Chandlers—­a remarkably comprehensive organization—­paid for “Sack beere and Tobacco” at the Talbot on St. Luke’s Day, October 18, on the occasion of a dinner given to the Company by one Richard Walker; and similar expenditure was common among both London and provincial Companies.  The court-books of the Skinners Company of London show that in preparation for their annual Election Dinner in 1694, the cook appeared before the court and produced a bill of fare which, with some alterations, was agreed to.  The butler then appeared and undertook to provide knives, salt, pepper-pots, glasses, sauces, &c., “and everything needfull for L7. and if he gives content then to have L8. he provides all things but pipes, Tobacco, candles and beer”—­which apparently fell to the lot of some other caterer.

But so early as 1655 there is a sign of change of custom—­a change, that is, in the direction of restricting and limiting the hitherto unbounded freedom granted to the use of tobacco.  The London Society of Apothecaries on August 15, 1655, held a meeting for the election of a Master and an Upper Warden; and from the minutes of this meeting we learn that by general consent it was forbidden henceforward to smoke in the Court Room while dining or sitting, under penalty of half a crown.