A History of Herbalism AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 11 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066 AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 22 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066 A History of Herbalism Cure, Cook and Conjure Emma Kay AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 33 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066 First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Pen & Sword History An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd Yorkshire – Philadelphia Copyright © Emma Kay 2022 ISBN 978 1 39900 895 2 The right of Emma Kay to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Typeset by Mac Style Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY. Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl. For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Or PEN AND SWORD BOOKS 1950 Lawrence Rd, Havertown, PA 19083, USA E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.penandswordbooks.com AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 44 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066 Contents Acknowledgements vi Introduction vii Chapter 1 From ‘Witches’ to Botanists: British Pioneers, Popularists and Everyday Herbalists 1 Herbalists of the Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries 10 Herbalists of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 24 Quackery and Hazardous Herbology 33 Strewers and Sellers 38 Herb Sellers 40 Hospitals, Gardens and Stores 46 Herb Illustrators 51 Chapter 2 Magic and Medicine 57 Herbs and Magic A–Z 64 Medicinal Herbs A–Z 85 Chapter 3 Culinary Transition 110 Soups and Stews 111 Salads 117 Sauces 120 Vegetable Dishes 123 Pies, Tarts and Puddings 127 Fish Dishes 138 Egg Dishes 141 Meat Dishes 145 Sweet Dishes 152 Biscuits and Confection 155 Drinks 161 Notes 168 Bibliography 184 AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 55 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066 Acknowledgements hanks go out to Alan Murphy at Pen & Sword for having faith in Tthis idea and editor Laura Hirst, as well as all the other staff who work tirelessly putting the proofs together and designing jacket covers and layouts. Special appreciation to my old and dear friend Rachel Dingsdale for spending a delightful day with me at the Botanical Gardens, Oxford, and sharing in the delights of their wonderful herbarium. To my gorgeous son and patient husband – thank you both for all your continued support, as ever. AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 66 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066 Introduction The gentian’s bluest fringes Are curling in the sun; In dusty pods the milkweed Its hidden silk has spun.1 t is quite hard to define a herb; Rosalind Northcote described them Ithus: ‘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.’2 So there you have it – the definition, if somewhat vague and incomplete, of a herb in its simplest terms. Many books about Blue gentians. AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 77 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066 viii A History of Herbalism herbs tend to include a myriad of miscellaneous plants and all the spices as well. This is probably because spices are often traditionally lumped together with herbs as generic medicines or culinary additions. Whilst you may find reference to some plants and roots which are not strictly herbs in this book, you will not find any information relating to spices. I wanted this to be a book that focused specifically on the properties of herbs where possible. The World Health Organization (WHO) refers to herbs as ‘herbal materials, herbal preparations, and finished herbal products that contain whole plants, parts of plants, or other plant materials, including leaves, bark, berries, flowers, and roots, and/or their extracts as active ingredients intended for human therapeutic use or for other benefits in humans and sometimes animals’.3 I find classifying is essential to understanding herbs and throughout this book you will discover the wide and complex use of plants in magic, cooking and medicine, the three areas that made the most sense to me in terms of herbology. In 1895 a remarkable thing happened. Alicia Amherst published a list of herbs that she cited as belonging to the fifteenth century, from a manuscript unearthed within the pages of an old cookery book. Since then, several researchers have identified this comprehensive list as likely to have been compiled around the beginning of the 1500s, with the handwriting consistent of that used within the reign of Henry VIII. They also identified a potential author, as one Thomas Fourmond, or Fromond, who was the owner of land in both Carshalton and Cheam. He died around 1542.4 The ‘Fromond list’ was reclassified by John Harvey in 1989, according to Alicia’s original list, which was then comprehensively reformatted by the historic gardener and author Sylvia Landsberg in 2003. To me this list provides a useful guide to English medieval herb classification, representing a timeless approach to indexing the various properties of herbs, their uses and character. Herbs for pottage Agrimony, Alexanders, astrologia longa, A. rotunda, avens, basil, beet, betony, borage, cabbage, caraway, chervil, chives, clary, colewort, columbine, coriander, daisy, dandelion, dill, dittander, fennel, good king henry, hart’s-tongue, langdebeef, leek, lettuce, lupin, mallow, marigold AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 88 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066 Introduction ix Valerian at Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum. (Emma Kay) (pot), marjoram, mint, nepp, nettle (red), oculus Christi, orach, parsley, patience, pepperwort, radish, rape, safflower, sage, spinach, thistle, milk, thyme, valerian, violet, wood sorrel, (sowthistle). Herbs for sauce Dittander, harts-tongue, masterwort, mints, parsley, pellitory, sorrel, violet, (garlic mustard), (wood sorrel). AA HHiissttoorryy ooff HHeerrbbaalliissmm..iinndddd 99 0033//0022//22002222 1122::0066