The last will and testament of Dame Margaret Thompson was an unusual document, concerned almost entirely with snuff. In this will she set forth that, "as it was usual to put flowers into the coffins of departed friends, and she had never found any flowers as fragrant and refreshing as snuff, her trusted servant, Sarah, was to cover her body with the best Scotch snuff."
The six men that were to carry her to the churchyard must be the greatest snuff-takers in the parish; and the half-dozen old maids chosen to act as pall-bearers were to be supplied with boxes of snuff wherewith to refresh themselves on the way. The clergyman was to be paid four guineas on condition that he walked in the procession and took a certain quantity of snuff, not exceeding one pound. Sarah's legacy depended on her trust-worthiness in strewing the threshold of the house with two bushels of snuff and in walking before the funeral procession, to strew, every twenty yards, a large handful of the powder on the ground.
The Irish Times, May 31st, 1930.