More from Sheppard's book - you might be interested in earlier attitudes to that evil habit of smoking ..... "Smoking in the Club appears to have been permitted, with certain restrictions, from the earliest timmes. For the first 10 yeras at least, hookahs must have been commonly used, and it is presumably from those days that the custom of handing round live charcoal has survived. "After dinner" wrote Col. Davidson in "Memories of a Long Life" apropros dinner in the Fort "the hookaburdars slipped in, and each, having spread a handsome narrow Persian rug behind his master's chair, prepared the chillum, blowing vigorously at the red hot balls, and handed the chased silver mouth piece of the snake like tube to his master, when a general gurgling was heard that astonished unaccustomed ears." The luxury was not so costly as some may think, for against the hookaburdar's wages could be set the low price of tobacco. Messrs Higgs & Briggs, of Medows Street, sold the best Bengal hooka tobacco at Rs15 per package of 21lbs and the same providers offer Manilla cheroots at Rs15 per 1000. In 1852 a rule was passed prohibiting smoking in the sitting rooms between 6 and 8pm. ...... It was only in comparatively recent times that smoking became generally tolerated. At a committee meeting in 1855 were read letters from J Kershaw Esq. and Dr J H Sylvester complaining of the nuisance occasioned by members smoking at all hours of the day and night in the sleeping apartments. A resolution was passed forbidding smoking in any part of the buildings or verandah of the sleeping apartments. A footnote adds that the present (1916) by-law is that Smoking is not allowed in the dining room between teh hours of 6.30pm and 9.15pm. Sylvia