“Ashton, February 2, 1632.”
I quote only three recipes from this attractive MS.: “A Bath for Melancholy,” “Balles for the face” and “For them theyr speech faileth.”
“To make a bath for Melancholy. Take Mallowes, pellitory of the wall, of each three handfulls; Camomell flowers, Mellilot flowers, of each one handfull; hollyhocks, two handfulls; Isop one greate handfull, senerick seede one ounce, and boil them in nine gallons of Water untill they come to three, then put in a quart of new milke and go into it bloud warme or somthing warmer.”
“Balles for the face. Take greate Allecant reasons [raisins] a quarter of a pounde, stone them but wash them not and beate them in a morter very fine, take as many almonds, not Jordans, but of ye comon sort and blanch them and drye them in a cloth very well and beate them in a stone morter also very fine, when you have done thus to them bothe, mingle them bothe together and beate them againe, and putt to it half a quarter of a pounde of browne leavened bread, wheaten bread, and beate them altogeather and mingle them well togeather and then take it and make it in little balles and then wash yor face at night with one of them in fayre water. Yf you will have this only to wash yor hands put in a little Venice soape but putt none of that in for youre face.”
“For them theyr speech faileth. Take a handfull of ye cropps of Rosemary, a handfull of sage and a handfull of Isop and boile them in malmsey till it be soft, then put them into Lynen clothes and laye about the nape of the neck and the pulses of the armes as whott [hot] as it may be suffred daily, as it shal be thought mete and it will help it by God’s grace. For the same. Take staves acre and beate it and sowe it in a linnen cloth and make a bagg noe bigger than a beane; if he can chow it in his mouth lett hym, if not then lay it upon his tongue.”
To the modern mind the medical recipes to be found in these still-room books sound truly alarming, but in The Lady Sedley her Receipt book they are not more so than the prescriptions which were contributed by the most eminent physicians of that day. In his paper[129] on this MS. Dr. Guthrie quotes many of these recipes, amongst them one from the famous Dr. Stephens,[130] so frequently quoted by Sir Kenelm Digby and in other still-room books of the period. In Lady Sedley’s book his recipe is introduced thus: “A copy to make the sovreigns’t water that ever was devised by man, which Dr. Stephens a physician of great cuning and of long experience did use and therewith did cure many great cases, and all was kept in secret until a little before his death; when the Archbishop of Canterbury got it from him.” Amongst the other contributors to this MS. were no fewer than three of the doctors who attended Charles II. in his last illness, and if they gave the king even in a mild form medicines resembling those we find in this book, Macaulay’s description that “they tortured him for some hours like an Indian at the stake” can hardly have been exaggerated. There is a “Receipt for Convulsion Fitts” from Sir Edward Greaves (the first physician to be created a baronet) consisting of peony roots, dead man’s skull, hoofs of asses, white amber and bezoar; and the famous Dr. Sydenham contributed a “Prescription for the head” in which, not content with the seventy-two ingredients of which Venice treacle consisted, he added Wormwood, orange peel, angelica and nutmeg. Another distinguished contributor to this MS. was the ill-fated Duke of Monmouth. A prescription for stone from Judge Ellis consisted of Venice turpentine distilled with various herbs and spices in small ale. It was to be made only in June and taken “three days before the full and three days before the change of the Moone” (incidentally a survival of Saxon moon lore), but the Duke of Monmouth’s prescription for the same complaint is quite different and is compounded of ripe haws and fennel roots distilled in white wine and taken with syrup of elder. Lady Sedley, the first owner, and presumably author of the book, was the wife of Sir Charles Sedley, one of Charles II.’s intimate friends and notorious for his mad pranks. Between her husband and her daughter her life must have been almost unbearable, and it is not surprising that the unfortunate woman ended her days in a mad-house.
Of the MS. still-room books in the British Museum undoubtedly the most interesting is Mary Doggett: Her Book of Receipts, 1682.[131] On the first page is affixed a note: “This Mary Doggett was the wife of Doggett the Player who left a legacy of a yearly coat and badge to be rowed for.”[132] The MS. is beautifully written and contains an astonishing amount of information on every housewifely art, from washing “parti-coloured stockings” to making perfumes and “Sweete Baggs.” Indeed the reading of the headlines alone gives one some idea of the multifarious duties of a mistress of a large house in those days. We find—and I quote only a few—recipes “to make morello cherry cakes,” “apricock marmalett,” “to preserve Cherrys white,” “to candy oranges or lemons or any kind of sucketts,” “to preserve almonds,” “to preserve damsons,” “orange butter,” “pippin creame,” “to make molds for apricock Plumbs,” “apricock wine,” “to keep cherrys all the year,” “to make cowslip wine,” “cakes of clove gilly flowers,” “curran wine,” “grapes in jelly,” “cleer cakes of goosberys,” “fine cakes of lemons,” “to preserve Rasps whole,” “to make Lemon Creame,” “lemon Syllibub,” “orange biskett,” “cheese caks of oranges,” “to preserve pippins in slices,” “to make plumb biskett,” “to pickle Quinces,” “to preserve Wallnutts,” “to preserve double blew violetts for Salletts,” “to candy Double marygold, Roses, or any other flowers,” “to make good sorrell wine,” “sweet powders for linnen,” “to perfume gloves after the Spanish maner,” “to souse a pigg,” “Almond milk,” “to pickle cucumbers,” “drinks to cause sleep,” “snaile broth,” “plasters for bruises,” “to make pomades” and “past for the hands.” The receipts for “A Pomander,” for “Balme water,” “to dry roses for sweet powder,” and “a perfume for a sweet bagg” are particularly attractive, and I give them below.
“A Pomander. Take a quarter of an ounce of Civitt, a quarter and a half-quarter of an ounce of Ambergreese, not half a quarter of an ounce of ye Spiritt of Roses, 7 ounces of Benjamin, allmost a pound of Damask Rose buds cutt. Lay gumdragon in rose water and with it make up your Pomander, with beads as big as nutmegs and color ym with Lamb [sic] black; when you make ym up wash your hands wth oyle of Jasmin to smooth ym, then make ym have a gloss, this quantity will make seaven Braceletes.”
“A receipt for Balme. Take 6 or 7 handfulls of balme, cut it a little, put it in an Earthen pott wth a handfull of cowslip flowers, green or dry, half an ounce of Mace, a little bruised pow[d]er in ym, 4 quarts of strong ale, let ym stand a night to infuse: in ye morning put it into your still, poure upon it a quart of brandy. Past up your Still; you may draw about 2 quarts of water. Sweeten it with Sugar to your Tast and tye up too pennyworth of Saffron in a ragg, put it into ye water and let it lye till it be colored. Squeeze it out and bottle it for your use.”
“To dry Roses for sweet powder. Take your Roses after they have layen 2 or 3 days on a Table, then put them into a dish and sett ym on a chafering dish of Charcole, keeping them stirred, and as you stir ym strew in some powder of orris, and when you see them pretty dry put them into a gally pot till you use them.”