the unpleasant and quite unnecessary habit of spitting was common with
these early smokers, a suggestion which is amply supported by other
contemporary evidence.

Tobacco was smoked by all classes and in almost all places. It was
smoked freely in the streets. In some verses prefixed to an edition of
Skelton's "Elinour Rumming" which appeared in 1624, the ghost of
Skelton, who was poet-laureate to King Henry VIII, was made to say
that he constantly saw smoking:

_As I walked between
Westminster Hall
And the Church of Saint Paul,
And so thorow the citie,
Where I saw and did pitty
My country men's cases,
With fiery-smoke faces,
Sucking and drinking
A filthie weede stinking._

Tobacco-selling was sometimes curiously combined with other trades. A
Fleet Street tobacconist of this time was also a dealer in worsted
stockings. A mercer of Mansfield who died at the beginning of 1624,
and who apparently carried on business also at Southwell, had a
considerable stock of tobacco. In the Inventory of all his "cattalles
and goods" which is dated 24 January 1624, there is included "It. in
Tobacco 19._li_ 0. 0." Nineteen pounds' worth of tobacco, considering
the then value of money, was no small stock for a mercer-tobacconist
to carry.