The Book of Herbs

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Book of Herbs, by Rosalind Northcote
HANDBOOKS OF PRACTICAL GARDENING—XII EDITED BY HARRY ROBERTS
THE BOOK OF HERBS
JOHN PARKINSON ( From the statue erected by Mr. H. Thompson at Sefton Park, Liverpool )
BY LADY ROSALIND NORTHCOTE
JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD LONDON AND NEW YORK. MCMIII
Turnbull & Spears, Printers, Edinburgh
Here’s fine rosemary, sage and thyme. Come, buy my ground ivy. Here’s featherfew, gilliflowers and rue. Come, buy my knotted marjoram, ho! Come, buy my mint, my fine green mint. Here’s fine lavender for your cloaths, Here’s parseley and winter savory, And heartsease which all do choose. Here’s balm and hyssop and cinquefoil, All fine herbs it is well known. Let none despise the merry, merry cries Of famous London Town.
Here’s penny royal and marygolds. Come, buy my nettle-tops. Here’s water-cresses and scurvy grass, Come buy my sage of virtue, ho! Come, buy my wormwood and mugworts. Here’s all fine herbs of every sort. Here’s southernwood that’s very good. Dandelion and houseleek. Here’s dragon’s tongue and wood sorrel, With bear’s-foot and horehound. Let none despise the merry, merry cries Of famous London Town.
Roxburghe Ballads.
THE BOOK OF HERBS
What is a Herb? I have heard many definitions, but never one that satisfied the questioner, and shall, therefore, take warning by the failures of others and make no attempt to define the word here. It is, however, fairly safe to say generally that a herb is a plant, green, and aromatic and fit to eat, but it is impossible to deny that there are several undoubted herbs that are not aromatic, a few more grey than green, and one or two unpalatable, if not unwholesome. So no more space shall be devoted to discussing their “nature,” but I will endeavour to present individual ones to the reader as clearly as possible, in order that from their collective properties he may form his own idea of a herb. The objection may be raised that several plants included in this book are outside the subject. To answer this, I would point out that the boundaries of a herb-garden are indefinite, and that the old writers’ views of them were liberal. Besides this, every garden must have an outside hedge or wall, and if this imaginary herb-garden has a row of elder bushes on the East, barberry trees on the West, some bay trees on the South, and a stray willow or so on the North, who can say that they are inappropriately placed? The bay and barberry hold an undisputable position, and the other trees have each an interesting history in folk-lore, magic and medicine. Herbs have been used in all countries and from the earliest times, but I have confined myself, as a rule, to those spoken of by British authors, and used in the British Isles, though not scrupling to quote foreign beliefs or customs where they give weight or completeness to our own or our forefathers’ practices, or are themselves of much interest. We have forgotten much that would be profitable to us.