DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0090
68
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
of his day. But besides “ medlars, quinces, Warden pears,
peaches, and pears of St. Regula,” he adds such fruits as
oranges, lemons, pomegranates, myrrh, and spices, and other
things equally incredible.
Another classical writer of uncertain date was Macer. An
author of that name was contemporary with Virgil; but the
writer of the Herbal which was translated into many languages
must have lived at some later date, as he quotes Galen. It
is strictly a herbal treating of the medicinal uses of herbs and
spices. The old translations are valuable, as giving the English
equivalents of the Latin names, and Macer’s was such a
common hand-book, that anyone planting a herb garden, would
try to obtain as many of the plants mentioned by him, as
could be found in England at that period. The name of the
first translator of Macer is lost in obscurity, but there is
a manuscript translation, dated 1373, by John Lelamour,
schoolmaster of Hertford,* and several other early translations
exist, although the book was not printed until about 1530.
One of them is curious, from the additions made by the
translator or transcriber, of some plants known to him, and
not mentioned by Macer.t He subjoins also some further
medical recipes, which indicate more of the usual plants of a
herb garden. The following example is the recipe given for
curing the pestilence :—“ Do take and medele, pimpernoll,
sauge, auance, seint mary gouldes, tansey, sorell’, and columbyne,
stampe ^tese VII erbes and drink the ioiuse of hem in ole
ale or clene water and it wole distroie the pestilence be it
never so felle.”
Further information about gardens is to be gained from
other medical works. There is an English fourteenth-century
medical poem preserved in MS. in the Royal Library, Stockholm,
which contains some graphic descriptions of flowers. With
regard to the good qualities of rosemary, the author says : —
“ Rosmarine is bothen erbe & tre, hot and drie of kende
hys lewys arn eu^rmore grene & neue7' more falty as techy
bokes of fysik and ek bokys of skole of sallerne wrot to ye
Sloane, No. 5, Sec. 3. f MS. circa 1440, in the Library at Didlington.
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
of his day. But besides “ medlars, quinces, Warden pears,
peaches, and pears of St. Regula,” he adds such fruits as
oranges, lemons, pomegranates, myrrh, and spices, and other
things equally incredible.
Another classical writer of uncertain date was Macer. An
author of that name was contemporary with Virgil; but the
writer of the Herbal which was translated into many languages
must have lived at some later date, as he quotes Galen. It
is strictly a herbal treating of the medicinal uses of herbs and
spices. The old translations are valuable, as giving the English
equivalents of the Latin names, and Macer’s was such a
common hand-book, that anyone planting a herb garden, would
try to obtain as many of the plants mentioned by him, as
could be found in England at that period. The name of the
first translator of Macer is lost in obscurity, but there is
a manuscript translation, dated 1373, by John Lelamour,
schoolmaster of Hertford,* and several other early translations
exist, although the book was not printed until about 1530.
One of them is curious, from the additions made by the
translator or transcriber, of some plants known to him, and
not mentioned by Macer.t He subjoins also some further
medical recipes, which indicate more of the usual plants of a
herb garden. The following example is the recipe given for
curing the pestilence :—“ Do take and medele, pimpernoll,
sauge, auance, seint mary gouldes, tansey, sorell’, and columbyne,
stampe ^tese VII erbes and drink the ioiuse of hem in ole
ale or clene water and it wole distroie the pestilence be it
never so felle.”
Further information about gardens is to be gained from
other medical works. There is an English fourteenth-century
medical poem preserved in MS. in the Royal Library, Stockholm,
which contains some graphic descriptions of flowers. With
regard to the good qualities of rosemary, the author says : —
“ Rosmarine is bothen erbe & tre, hot and drie of kende
hys lewys arn eu^rmore grene & neue7' more falty as techy
bokes of fysik and ek bokys of skole of sallerne wrot to ye
Sloane, No. 5, Sec. 3. f MS. circa 1440, in the Library at Didlington.