JULY. 



307 



Ashmolean Museum, and published by the Shakspeare 

 Society. 



" Of Nettels lykwyse there be store 



In sallets at thys season ; 

 For men be nettled more and more 

 With palltryse passynge reson." 



Even now in the north of England it is common to 

 make nettle broth in the spring and early summer ;* 

 and the following anecdote in exemplification of this, 

 as well as the castigatory powers of the Nettle, may 

 amuse those who may perhaps shrink from examining 

 too closely the plant itself, The incident occurred 

 sometime in 1839, at Bolton, in Lancashire. A me- 

 chanic of that town having been out for a walk, 

 seduced by the luxuriant aspect of a patch of very 

 fine tall nettles, had filled the capacious pockets of 

 his fustian jacket with them, intending to surprise 

 the eyes of his wife with so alluring a present, and 

 treat his household with Nettle broth. In his pro- 

 gress homewards, however, he encountered a police- 

 man, no doubt fresh from the green island, who struck 

 with the bulk of the pockets, collared the poor herbal- 

 ist, and listening to no explanations, roughly dragged 

 him into a shop, and commenced a search by diving 

 somewhat precipitately into his pockets. He soon 

 found there was something there that ought not to have 

 leen there, or at least rather different to what he 

 expected to meet with ; so finding a warmer reception 



* In DOVASTOS'S account of Bewick, in London's Magazine of Natural 

 History, he describes the naturalist and engraver as collecting Nettle-tops 

 in his handkerchief, " which, when boiled, he ate in his soup, methought 

 with very keen relish." Nettle-tops are considered to purify the blood 

 when boiled in milk. A kind of Beer may be brewed from the young 

 sprouts of Nettles boiled in water, adding to the liquid half a pound of 

 sugar or treacle, with a little ginger for each gallon. 



