The Old English Herbals Part 13

One writes thus: "Oxford and England are happy in the foundation of a s.p.a.cious ill.u.s.trious physicke garden, compleately beautifully walled and gated, now in levelling and planting with the charges and expences of thousands by the many wayes Honourable Earle of Danby, the furnis.h.i.+ng and enriching whereof and of many a glorious Tempe, with all usefull and delightfull plants will be the better expedited by your painefull happy satisfying Worke.

"Tho. Clayton, His Majesty's prof. of Physicke, Oxon."

One who signs himself "Your affectionate friend John Bainbridge Doctor of Physique, and Professor of Astronomy, Oxon" writes thus: "I am a stranger to your selfe but not to your learned and elaborate volumnes.

I have with delight and admiration surveyed your _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_, a stately Fabrique, collected and composed with excessive paines....

It is a curious pourtrait and description of th' Earths flowred mantle, the Herbarist's Oracle, a rich Magazin of soveraigne Medicines, physicall experiments and other rarities."

Parkinson divides his plants into "Cla.s.ses or Tribes":--

1. Sweete smelling Plants.

2. Purging Plants.

3. Venemous Sleepy and Hurtfull plants and their Counter poysons.

4. Saxifrages.

5. Vulnerary or Wound Herbs.

6. Cooling and Succory like Herbs.

7. Hot and sharpe biting Plants.

8. Umbelliferous Plants.

9. Thistles and Th.o.r.n.y Plants.

10. Fearnes and Capillary Herbes.

11. Pulses.

12. Cornes.

13. Gra.s.ses Rushes and Reeds.

14. Marsh Water and Sea plants and Mosses and Mushromes.

15. The Unordered Tribe.

16. Trees and Shrubbes.

17. Strange and Outlandish Plants.

Under "The Unordered Tribe" we find the nave remark: "In this tribe as in a gathering campe I must take up all those straglers that have either lost their rankes or were not placed in some of the foregoing orders that so I may preserve them from losse and apply them to some convenient service for the worke"!

It is surprising how much folk lore survives even in Parkinson's Herbal. Like Gerard, he pours scorn on a good many contemporary beliefs, but many he accepts unquestioningly, especially those concerning the use of herbs as amulets and also for the promotion of happiness. He gives also some old gardening beliefs not to be found in other herbals, but very common in contemporary books on gardening and husbandry, and more bee lore than most herbals contain. Nearly all the old herbalists believed in the value of growing balm near the beehives, and also of rubbing the hive with this herb, but Parkinson alone tells us of the harmful effects of woad:[96] "Some have sowen it but they have founde it to be the cause of the Destruction of their Bees, for it hath been observed that they have dyed as it were of a Flix that have tasted hereof." Of balm,[97] however, he writes: "it is an hearbe wherein Bees do much delight both to have their Hives rubbed therewith to keepe them together and draw others and for them to suck and feed upon." Elsewhere he tells us that "it hath been observed that bees will hardly thrive well where many Elmes doe grow or at least if they upon their first going forth abroad after Winter doe light on the bloomings or seed thereof."[98] Of the sweet-smelling flag he says: "it is verily believed of many that the leaves or roots of Acorus tyed to a hive of Bees stayeth them from wandering or flying away and draweth a greater resort of others thereto."[99]

Upon the use of herbs as amulets his views seem inconsistent. He is scornful of the custom of hanging a piece of mistletoe to children's necks "against witchcraft and the illusion of Sathan"; yet he gravely informs us that "if the sope that is made of the lye of the ashes [of gla.s.sewort] be spread upon a piece of thicke course brown paper cut into the forme of their shooe sole, that are casually taken speechless and bound to the soles of their feete it will bring again the speech and that within a little time after the applying thereof if there be any hope of being restored while they live: this hath been tried to be effectuall upon diverse persons."[100] The custom of wearing meadowsweet or hanging it up in living-rooms[101] he describes as a "superst.i.tious conceit," but he accepts without demur the tradition[102] that a wreath of periwinkle "worne about the legs defendeth them that wear it from the crampe." Bartholomaeus Anglicus tells us that Augustus Caesar used to wear a wreath of bryony during a thunderstorm to protect himself from lightning, but the story is not repeated until, after the lapse of four hundred years, we find in Parkinson the statement that "Augustus Caesar was wont to weare bryony with bayes made into a roule or garlande thereby to be secured from lightening."[103] Parkinson regards the use of herbs against witchcraft as sheer foolishness, but he is the only herbalist who gives us a potion[104] which "resisteth such charmes or the like witchery that is used in such drinkes that are given to produce love."

Like Gerard, he does not question the efficacy of borage, bugloss and many other herbs to promote happiness. Of borage[105] he tells us: "The leaves floures and seedes are very cordiall and helpe to expell pensivenesse and melancholie that ariseth without manifest cause"; and of a confection made from oak galls,[106] that it is "dayly commended and used with good effect against Melancholy pa.s.sions and sorrow proceeding of no evident cause." Water yarrow "is taken with vinegar to helpe casuall sighings also the Toothache."[107] Under viper's-gra.s.s[108] we find "the water distilled in gla.s.ses or the roote itself taken is good against the pa.s.sions and tremblings of the heart as also against swoonings sadnes and melancholy," and under bugloss,[109] that "the rootes or seedes are effectuall to comfort the heart and to expell sadnesse and causelesse melancholy." In common with other herbalists he believed also that herbs could be used to strengthen the memory, to help weak brains, to quicken the senses and even to soothe "frenzied" people. Of eyebright,[110] used for so many centuries, and even until recent times, to help dull sight, he says: "it helpeth a weake braine or memory and restoreth them being decayed in a short time." Fleabane "bound to the forehead is a great helpe to cure one of the frensie," while "the distilled water of thyme applyed with vinegar of Roses to the forehead easeth the rage of Frensye."[111] Lavender is of "especiall good use for all griefes and paines of the head and brain,"[112] and sage[113] is of "excellent good use to helpe the memory by warming and quickening the senses."

Parkinson gives more beauty recipes than any other herbalist. For those who wish to darken their hair he recommends was.h.i.+ng it with a decoction of bramble leaves.[114] The golden flowers of mullein[115]

"boyled in lye dyeth the haires of the head yellow and maketh them faire and smooth." The ashes of southernwood[116] mixed with old salad oil will cause a beard to grow or hair on a bald head, and yarrow is almost as good; garden spurge, elder flowers, broom, madder, rue, gentian, scabious, betony, elecampane, Solomon's Seal, the great hawkweed and lupin are all excellent to "cleanse the skinne from freckles, sunburn and wrinkles."[117] The French women "account the distilled water of pimpernell mervailous good to clense the skinne from any roughnesse deformity or discolouring thereof and to make it smooth neate and cleere."[118] The Italian dames, however, "doe much use the distilled water of the whole plant of Solomon's Seal."[119]

Lupin seems to have the most remarkable virtue, for not only will it take away all smallpox marks, but it will also make the user "look more amiable"! Many women, therefore, "doe use the meale of Lupines mingled with the gall of a goate and some juyce of Lemons to make into a forme of a soft ointment."[120] Parkinson is the only herbalist who gives recipes to enable people to get thin and also to look pale. "The powder of the seedes of elder[121] first prepared in vinegar and then taken in wine halfe a dramme at a time for certaine dayes together is a meane to abate and consume the fat flesh of a corpulent body and to keepe it leane." For those who like to look pale he recommends c.u.min seed and bishopsweed.[122] And "for a sweet powder[123] to lay among linnen and garments and to make sweet waters to wash hand-gloves or other things to perfume them" he recommends the roots of the sweet-smelling flag.

It is, however, the curious out-of-the-way pieces of information on all sorts of matters which are so interesting in Parkinson's Herbal. He tells us that three several sorts of colours are made from the berries of the purging thorn; that the yellow dye is used by painters, "and also by Bookbinders to colour the edges of Bookes and by leather dressers to colour leather"; that the green dye is "usually put up into great bladders tyed with strong thred at the head and hung up untill it is drye, which is dissolved in water or wine, but sacke is the best to preserve the colour from 'starving,' as they call it, that is from decaying, and to make it hold fresh the longer"; and that the purple dye is made by leaving the berries on the bushes until the end of November, when they are ready to drop off. That the best mushrooms grow under oaks or fir trees. That spurry leaves bruised and laid to a cut finger will speedily heal it, "whereof the Country people in divers places say they have had good experience," and that it is also good for causing "the Kine to give more store of milke than ordinary otherwise, so it causeth Pullaine likewise to lay more store of egges." That the fruit of the bead tree "being drilled and drawne on stringes serves people beyond sea to number their prayers thereon least they forget themselves and give G.o.d too many." That in Warwicks.h.i.+re the female fern was always used "in steed of Sope to wash their clothes," and that it was gathered about Midsummer, "unto good big b.a.l.l.s which when they will use them they burne them in the fire until it becomes blewish, which being then layd by will dissolve into powder of itselfe, like unto Lime: foure of these balles being dissolved in warme water is sufficient to wash a whole bucke full of clothes." That the burning of lupin seeds drives away gnats, and that half-sodden barley "given to Hennes that hardly or seldome lay egges will cause them to lay both greater and more often." That country housewives use that common weed horsetail to scour their wooden, pewter and bra.s.s vessels, and sometimes boil the young tops of the same weed and eat them like asparagus. That bramble leaves do not fall until all the sharp frosts are over, "whereby the country men do observe that the extremity of Winter is past when they fall off." That every year sacks full of violets are sent from Ma.r.s.eilles to Alexandria and other parts of Egypt, "where they use them boyled in water which only by their religion they are enjoined to drinke." That if you suspect your wine is watered "you shall put some thereof into a cup that is made of ivie wood and if there be any water therein it will remaine in the cup and the wine will soak through, for the nature of Ivie is not to hold any wine so great an antipathy there is between them." That skilful shepherds are careful not to let their flocks feed in pastures where mouseare abounds, "lest they grow sicke and leane and die quickly after." That writing-ink can be made of the green fruit of alder trees.

That the bark of the same tree is useful for making "a blacke dye for the courser sorts of things," and that the leaves put under the bare feet of travellers are "a great refres.h.i.+ng unto them." That the rose of Jericho opened the night our Saviour was born, and that placed in any house it will open when a child is born. That mouseare if given to any horse "will cause that he shall not be hurt by the Smith that shooeth him." That purslane is not only a sovereign remedy for crick in the neck, but also for "blastings by lightening, or planets and for burnings by Gunpowder or otherwise." That country folk in Kent and Suss.e.x call sopewort "Gill-run-by-the-streete." That agrimony leaves will cure cattle suffering from coughs, and that wounded deer use this same herb to heal their hurts. That a decoction made of hemp will draw earthworms out of their holes and that fishermen thus obtain their bait. That crops of woad may be cut three times in the year, and that dyers' weed will change to green any cloth or silk first dyed blue with woad, "and for these uses there is great store of this herbe spent in all countries and thereof many fields are sowen for the purpose." That country-folk use goose-gra.s.s as a strainer "to clear their milke from strawes, haires, and any other thing that falleth into it." That St.

John's wort is used by country-folk to drive away devils. That "Clownes woundwort" owes its name to a labourer who healed himself therewith of a cut with a scythe in his leg. That willow-herb, being burned, "driveth away flies and gnats and other such like small creatures which use in diverse places that are neere to Fennes, marsh or water sides to infest them that dwell there in the night season to sting and bite them, leaving the marks and spots thereof in their faces which beside the deformity, which is but for a while, leaveth them that are thus bitten not without paine for a time." That from turnesole (heliotropium) are made "those ragges of cloth which are usually called Turnesole in the Druggists and Grocers shoppes and with all other people and serveth to colour jellies or other things as every one please." That when French ladies coloured their faces with an ointment containing anchusa the colour did not last long. That no "good gentlewoman in the land that would do good" should be without a store of bugloss ointment either for her own family "or other her poor neighbours that want helpe and means to procure it," and that beyond the sea in France and Germany it is a common proverb "that they neede neither Physition to cure their inward diseases nor Chirurgion to helpe them of any wound or sore that have this Bugle and Sanicle at hand by them to use." That this is equally true of the herb self-heale. That country-folk use sanicle to anoint their hands "when they are chapt by the winde." That goat's rue is good for fattening hens. That Herbe True love taken every day for twenty days will help those "that by witchcraft (as it is thought) have become half foolish to become perfectly restored to their former good estate." That the best starch is made from the root of cuckoo-pint, and that in former dayes when the making of our ordinary starch "was not knowen or frequent in use; the finest Dames used the rootes hereof to starch their linnen, which would so sting, exasperate and choppe the skinne of their servants' hands that used it, that they could scarce get them smooth and whole with all the nointing they could doe before they should use it againe." That the root of this same herb, cut small and mixed with a sallet of white endive or lettice, is "an excellent dish to entertain a smell-feast or unbidden unwelcome guest to a man's table, to make sport with him and drive him from his too much boldnesse; or the pouder of the dried roote strawed upon any daintie bit of meate that may be given him to eate; for either way within a while after the taking of it, it will so burne and p.r.i.c.ke his mouthe that he shall not be able either to eate a bit more or scarce to speak for paine and so will abide untill there be some new milk or fresh b.u.t.ter given, which by little and little will take away the heate and p.r.i.c.king and restore him againe." That another "good jest for a bold unwelcome guest" is to infuse nightshade in a little wine for six or seven hours and serve it to the guest, who then "shall not be able to eat any meate for that meale nor untill he drinks some vinegar which will presently dispell that qualitie and cause him to fall to his viands with as good a stomach as he had before." That sufferers from toothache should rub the bruised root of crowfoote on to their fingers; by causing "more paine therein than is felt by the toothach it taketh away the pain." That the juice of fumitory, if dropped in the eyes, will take away the redness and other defects, "although it procure some paine for the present and bringeth forth teares." That the hunters and shepherds of Austria commend the roots of the supposed wolf's-bane "against the swimming or turning in the head which is a disease subject to those places rising from the feare and horroure of such steepe downfalls and dangerous places which they doe and must continually pa.s.se." That scabious, if bruised and applied "to any place wherein any splinter, broken bone, or any such like thing lyeth in the flesh doth in short time loosen it and causeth it to be easily drawen forth." That butcher's broom was used in olden times to preserve "hanged meate" from being eaten by mice and also for the making of brooms, "but the King's Chamber is by revolution of time turned to the Butcher's stall, for that a bundle of the stalkes tied together serveth them to cleanse their stalls and from thence have we our English name of Butcher's broom." That the down of swallow-wort "doth make a farre softer stuffing for cus.h.i.+ons or pillowes or the like than Thistle downe which is much used in some places for the like purpose." That, if ivory is boiled with mandrake root for six hours, the ivory will become so soft "that it will take what form or impression you will give it." That fresh elder flowers, hung in a vessel of new wine and pressed every evening for seven nights together, "giveth to the wine a very good relish and a smell like Muscadine."

That the moth mullein is of no use except that it will attract moths wherever it is laid. That if pennyroyal is put into "unwholesome and stinking waters that men must drinke (as at sea in long voyages) it maketh them the less hurtful." And to conclude, it is from Parkinson we learn that "Queen Elizabeth of famous memorie did more desire medowsweet then any other sweete herbe to strewe her chambers withall."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORTRAIT OF JOHN PARKINSON FROM THE t.i.tLE-PAGE OF THE "PARADISUS" (1629)]

FOOTNOTES:

[88] See _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_, p. 609.

[89] Both John Tradescant and his son were gardeners to Charles I. and Henrietta Maria. John Tradescant the elder is said by Anthony a Wood to have been a Fleming or a Dutchman, but this is doubtful. The name is neither Flemish nor Dutch but probably English, and in the inscription on his tomb in Lambeth Churchyard he and his son are described as "both gardeners to the rose and lily queen." This was Henrietta Maria. Parkinson in his _Paradisus_ speaks of him as "that painfull industrious searcher and lover of all nature's varieties."

Tradescant accompanied Sir Dudley Digges on his voyage round the North Cape to Archangel, and on his return wrote an account of the plants he had found in Russia--the earliest extant record of plants in that part. It is interesting to note that in this he compares the soil of Russia to that of Norfolk. In 1620 Tradescant joined an expedition against the Algerine corsairs as a gentleman volunteer, and he also accompanied the Duke of Buckingham (George Villiers), to whom he had formerly been gardener, on the ill-fated expedition to La Roch.e.l.le. On Buckingham's death he entered the royal service, and probably at this time established his well-known physic garden and museum at Lambeth.

The house was called Tradescant's ark. There are three unsigned and undated portraits of the elder Tradescant in the Ashmolean Collection at Oxford.

[90] It also figures on the t.i.tle-page of Parkinson's _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_.

[91] "Now schalle I seye you semyingly of Countries and Yles that bea beyonde the Countries that I have spoken of. Wherefore I seye you in pessynge be [by] the Lord of Cathaye toward the high Ynde and towards Bacharye, men pa.s.sen be a Kyngdom that men clepen Caldhille, that is a fair contree. And there growethe a maner of Fruyt, as though it weren Gowrdes, and when thei ben rype men kutten hem ato, and men fynden with inne a lytylle Best, in Flesche, in Bon and Blode, as though it were a lytylle Lamb withouten wolle. And men eten both the Frut and the Best, and that is a great Marveylle. Of that Frute I have eaten, alle thoghe it were wonderfulle but that I knowe wel that G.o.d is marveyllous in his Werkes."

[92] See Herodotus (lib. iii. cap. 106); Ctesias (_Indica_); Strabo (lib. xv. cap. 21); Theophrastus _De Historia Plantarum_ (lib. iv.

cap. 4); Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_.

[93] "Master Tuggie," who lived in Westminster, was a famous grower of gilliflowers. See p. 116.

[94] White lavender was a favourite with Queen Henrietta Maria.

[95] This he tells us at the end of the preface to the _Paradisus_.

"Thus have I shewed you both the occasion and scope of this Worke, and herein have spent my time, paines, and charge, which if well accepted, I shall thinke well employed, and may the sooner hasten the fourth Part, A Garden of Simples; which will be quiet no longer at home, then that it can bring his Master newes of faire weather for the iourney."

[96] _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_, p. 601.

[97] _Ibid._, p. 43.

[98] _Ibid._, p. 1405.

[99] _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_, p. 144.

[100] _Ibid._, p. 281.

[101] _Ibid._, p. 265.

[102] _Ibid._, p. 384.

[103] _Ibid._, p. 181.

[104] _Ibid._, p. 422. Of this "Indian Spanish Counter poyson"

Parkinson gives us the further interesting information that "the Indians doe not eate the bodies of those they have slaine by their poysoned arrowes untill they have lyen three or foure dayes with their wounds washed with the juice of this herbe; which rendereth them tender and fit to be eaten which before were hard."

[105] _Theatrum Botanic.u.m_, p. 767.

[106] _Ibid._, p. 1397.

[107] _Ibid._, p. 1259.

[108] _Ibid._, p. 410.

[109] _Ibid._, p. 518.

[110] _Ibid._, p. 1330.