Old Toby was one of the three most notable varieties of pipe-weed, grown in the region around Longbottom in the Shire's Southfarthing.[1]
History
The leaf took its name from the Hobbit who introduced pipe-weed to the Shire, the original "Old Toby", Tobold Hornblower, who grew the first true pipe-weed in his gardens in the days of Isengrim Took II about the year 1070 of Shire-reckoning.
How Old Toby came by the plant is not recorded, for to his dying day he would not tell.[1]
Etymology
Portrayal in adaptations
2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:
- Bilbo Baggins smokes Old Toby next to Gandalf outside Bag End. Bilbo blows a smoke ring and Gandalf turns his ring into a ship, which 'sails' through Bilbo's ring.
2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers:
- Pippin recounts his dream to Merry in Fangorn Forest. In his dream, they smoked a large barrel, full of pipe-weed and Pippin vomited. He says 'I'd give anything for a whiff of Old Toby.'
2007: The Lord of the Rings Online:
- The smoke from Old Toby Pipe-weed takes the form of a large heart with a ring inside it.
2012: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:
- As Radagast narrates terrified to Gandalf his encounter with the Necromancer in Dol Guldur, Gandalf offers him to pull from his pipe some "Old Toby" to calm down.