¶ It heleth all stynkyng woundes whan they be wasshed therwith.”
From use in medicine, Aqua Vitæ soon came into domestic use, and here is given one of Iherom Bruynswyke’s “Styllatoryes,” which he says was the “comon fornays” which was “well beknowen amonge the potters, made of erthe leded or glased, and it may be removed from the one place to the other.”
It was in a still of this sort that the old housewives of the sixteenth and succeeding centuries used to concoct their strong and cordial waters—a practice which has given, and left to, our own times, the name of “Still-room,” as the housekeeper’s own particular domain. They experimented on almost every herb that grew, and some of their concoctions must have been exceedingly nasty. Yet some of their recipes read as if they were comforting, and they were not deficient in variety.
Heywood, in his Philocothonista, or The Drunkard, Opened, Dissected, and Anatomized, 1635, p. 48, mentions some of them. “To add to these chiefe and multiplicitie of wines before named, yet there be Stills and Limbecks going, swetting out Aqua Vitæ and strong waters deriving their names from Cynamon, Lemmons, Balme, Angelica, Aniseed, Stomach Water, Hunni, etc. And to fill up the number, we have plenty of Vsque-ba’ha.”
The old housewives’ books of the latter end of the sixteenth century, until much later, are still in existence, and from them we may learn many drinks of our forefathers, how to make Ipocras (very good, especially when taken in a “Loving Cup”), to clarify Whey, to make Buttered Beer, Sirrop of Roses or Violets, Rosa Solis, a Caudle for an old Man, or to distil Spirits of Spices, Spirits of Wine tasting of what Vegetable you please, Balme Water, Rosemary Water, Sinamon Water, Aqua Rubea, Spirits of Hony, Rose Water, Vinegar, very many scents, and a distillation called Aqua Composita, which entered into many receipts. There are many formulæ for this, but Bruynswyke gives the following:—
“AQUA VITE COMPOSITA.
“The same water is made some time of wyne with spyces onely, sometyme with wyne and rotes of the herbes, sometyme with the herbes, some tyme with the rotes and herbes togyder, for at all tymes thereto must be stronge wyne.
“Take a gallon of strong Gascoigne wine, and Sage, Mints, Red Roses, Time, Pellitorie, Rosemarie, Wild Thime, Camomil, Lavender, of eche an handfull. These herbes shal be stamped all togyder in a Morter, and then putte it in a clene vessell and do herto a pynte of Rose Water, and a quart of romney,[56] and then stoppe it close and let it stand so iii or iiii dayes. Whan ye have so done, put all this togyder in a styllatory and dystyll water of the same; than take your dystylled water, and pore it upon the herbes agayne into the styllatory, and strewe upon it these powders followynge.