English: Calverley's Ode To Tobacco. Plaque on the side of a shop in Rose Crescent in Cambridge (UK), a tribute to Bacon's Tobacconists, who remained in the same building until 1983. It now incongruously adorns a French Connection boutique.

Calverley's Ode To Tobacco

(Written in Cambridge in 1862)

A Tribute to This Firm

Thou who, when fears attack, Bidst them avaunt, and Black Care, at the horseman's back Perching, unseatest; Sweet, when the morn is grey; Sweet, when they've cleared away Lunch; and at close of day Possibly sweetest:

I have a liking old For thee, though manifold Stories, I know, are told, Not to thy credit; How one (or two at most) Drops make a cat a ghost - Useless, except to roast - Doctors have said it:

How they who use fusees All grow by slow degrees Brainless as chimpanzees, Meagre as lizards; Go mad, and beat their wives; Plunge (after shocking lives) Razors and carving knives Into their gizzards.

Confound such knavish tricks! Yet know I five or six Smokers who freely mix Still with their neighbours; Jones - (who, I'm glad to say, Asked leave of Mrs. J. -) Daily absorbs a clay After his labours.

Cats may have had their goose Cooked by tobacco-juice; Still why deny its use Thoughtfully taken? We're not as tabbies are: Smith, take a fresh cigar! Jones, the tobacco-jar!

Here's to thee, Bacon!