High, higher, highest?

Following dessert, tradition in both esteemed universities (and their constituent colleges) means that the guests adjourn to another room for digestifs, coffee, tea, fruit, nuts, chocolates, and...



at New College, to the pleasures contained in this silver box.



Puzzled perhaps as to the contents? While you can't see it, there is a little spoon buried beneath the...

the snuff.

Yes, I said snuff--that 17th century stuff made from pulvervized tobacco leaves which is sometimes flavored...or flavoured, as the case may be.

Well, I've never tried any sort of illegal substance in my life, not even marijuana, but I can now say that I have tried snuff, the teeniest, tiniest amount of the stuff. I picked up a small pinch, put it on the top part of my hand where the thumb meets the rest of the hand and sniffed. It tickled my nose and briefly opened up the air passages. I can't say it was entirely pleasurable, but it was entirely different. Ours was kind of a spicy flavor. And while we had high tea, and high table, snuff really didn't make me high, and that's a good thing.