Ferdinand I. of Naples prided himself upon the variety and excellence of
the fruit produced in his royal gardens, one of which was called
Paradise. Duke Hercules, of Ferrara, had a garden celebrated for its
fruits in one of the islands of the Po. The Duke of Milan, Ludovico,
carried this kind of luxury so far, that he had a travelling
fruit-garden; and the trees were brought to his table, or into his
chamber, that he might with his own hands gather the living fruit.
* * * * *
SNUFF.
Even among the rudest and poorest of the inhabitants of Scotland, and at
a period when their daily meal must have been always scanty, and
frequently precarious, one luxury seems to have established itself,
which has unaccountably found its way into every part of the world. We
mean tobacco. The inhabitants of Scotland, and especially of the
Highlands, are notorious for their fondness for snuff; and many were the
contrivances by which they formerly reduced the tobacco into powder. Dr.
Jamieson, the etymologist, defines a _mill_ to be the vulgar name for a
snuff-box, one especially of a cylindrical form, or resembling an
inverted cone.
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