Tobacco, in Queen Anne’s time, still maintained its hold over large classes of the people, and was still dominant in most places of public resort; but there were signs of change in various directions as we have seen, and smoking had to a large extent ceased to be fashionable.  Pepys has very few allusions to tobacco; Evelyn fewer still.  There is little evidence as to whether or not the gallants of the Restoration Court smoked; but considering the foppery of their attire and manners, it seems almost certain that tobacco was not in favour among them.  The beaux with their full wigs—­they carried combs of ivory or tortoiseshell in their pockets with which they publicly combed their flowing locks—­their dandy canes and scented, laced handkerchiefs, were not the men to enjoy the flavour of tobacco in a pipe.  They were still tobacco-worshippers; but they did not smoke.  The Indian weed retained its empire over the men (and women) of fashion by changing its form.  The beaux were the devotees of snuff.  The deftly handled pinch pleasantly titillated their nerves, and the dexterous use of the snuff-box, moreover, could also serve the purposes of vanity by displaying the beautiful whiteness of the hand, and the splendour of the rings upon the fingers.  The curled darlings of the late seventeenth century and the “pretty fellows” of Queen Anne’s time did not forswear tobacco, but they abjured smoking.  Snuff-taking was universal in the fashionable world among both men and women; and the development of this habit made smoking unfashionable.

VII

SMOKING UNFASHIONABLE:  EARLY GEORGIAN DAYS

    Lord Fopling smokes not—­for his teeth afraid;
    Sir Tawdry smokes not—­for he wears brocade.

          ISAAC HAWKINS BROWNE, circa 1740.

With the reign of Queen Anne tobacco had entered on a period, destined to be of long duration, when smoking was to a very large extent under a social ban.  Pipe-smoking was unfashionable—­that is to say, was not practised by men of fashion, and was for the most part regarded as “low” or provincial—­from the time named until well into the reign of Queen Victoria.  The social taboo was by no means universal—­some of the exceptions will be noted in these pages—­but speaking broadly, the general, almost universal smoking of tobacco which had been characteristic of the earlier decades of the seventeenth century did not again prevail until within living memory.

Throughout the eighteenth century the use of tobacco for smoking was largely confined to the middle and humbler classes of society.  To smoke was characteristic of the “cit,” of the country squire, of the clergy (especially of the country parsons), and of those of lower social status.  But at the same time it must be borne in mind that then, as since, the dictates of fashion and the conventions of society were little regarded by many artists and men of letters.