THE CHURCHWARDEN is not only a confessedly eccentric publication, the churchwarden is also an eccentric looking pipe. With its unusually long stem and small bowl it looks like a pipe from days gone by. Indeed, it was greatly appreciated by the upper- classes of the Elizabethan era. Originally, the churchwarden was a long stemmed clay pipe with a small knob on the bottom of the bowl. The long stem allowed the pipe smoker to comfortably rest his hand on the arm of a chair while puffing away, and the knob even enabled him to rest the pipe itself on the chair's arm, if he so desired, without damaging the furniture by the heat of the hot clay bowl. Today churchwardens are made of briar, and the stems are synthetic. The value of the churchwarden, apart from the fact that it looks cool, is that it also smokes cool. The long stem permits the pipe smoke to drop a little in temperature. Moreover, the churchwarden is a great pipe for the armchair theologian who has his nose stuck in a dusty volume of Spurgeon's sermons or a brand new copy of John Gierach's FISHING BAMBOO. That extended distance from bowl to mouth helps to keep the smoke out of the reader's eyes. Churchwardens are available from a number of pipe manufacturers, or sometimes they can be found on the Internet.