THE ANTIQUITY OF SMOKING

I feel much interested in the Query of your correspondent Z.A.Z. (Vol. ii., p. 41.) I had a "Query" something similar, with a "Note" on it, lying by me for some time, which I send you as they stand. —Was not smoking in use in England and other countries before the introduction of tobacco? Whitaker says, a few days after the tower of Kirkstall Abbey fell, 1779, he "Discovered imbedded in the mortar of the fallen fragments several little smoking pipes, such as were used in the reign of James I. for tobacco; a proof of a fact *which has not been recorded*, that, prior to the introduction of that…