36 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P. 



" As small as a grain of mustard-seed," appears to 

 have been a proverbial expression for any small object 

 among the Jews ; and this seed, which was the 

 smallest the husbandman was accustomed to sow, 

 produced the largest results by becoming the greatest 

 of the husl landman's herbs. 



We have no record when mustard was first used in 



this country, but in the household accounts of the 



thirteenth and fourteenth centuries we find that 



mustard was known to our forefathers under the 



name of " Senapum," and appears to have been used 



in large quantities, for in that interesting Household 



Book of the Earl of Northumberland, in the reign 



of Henry VII., it is stated that 160 gallons of 



mustard-seed was the allowance per annum to his 



servants and retainers. In those days the seed was 



not manufactured, but brought to table whole, when 



it was bruised and mixed with vinegar, according to 



the taste of the eater. It was not only used as a 



condiment, but also, no doubt, for medicinal purposes. 



Tusser, who wrote his "Five Hundred Points of 



Good Husbandry " in the reign of Queen Mary, says, 



in the direction for February, — ■ 



"Where banks be amended or newly upcast, 

 Sow mustard-seed after a shower be past." 



From this it appears that mustard was cultivated as 

 a field crop ; we also find it mentioned as an agricul- 

 tural produce in Rogers's " History of Agriculture and 

 Prices in England," as far back as 1285. It must 

 then have been S. nigra, black mustard, or S. arvensis, 

 the charlock, for Gerard tells us that the garden 

 mustard, which produces the whitest of seeds, had not 

 become common in the days of Queen Elizabeth, but 

 that he had distributed the seed into different parts 

 of England to make it known. He says, "Mustard 

 makes an excellent sauce, good to be eaten with gross 

 meats, either fish or flesh, because it promotes diges- 

 tion and sharpens the appetite." Thomas Cogan, 

 M.D., of Manchester, who published his "Haven of 

 Health " in 1605, says, "The force of the seed is well 

 perceived by eating mustard, for if it is good in 

 making to weep we are straightway taken by the nose 

 and provoked to sneeze, which plainly declareth that 

 it soon pierceth the brain. Wherefore as it is a good 

 sauce and procureth appetite, so it is profitable for 

 the pulse, and for such students as be heavy-headed 

 and drowsy, as if they would fall asleep with meat in 

 their mouths. And if any be given to music, and 

 would fain have clear voices, let them take mustard- 

 seed in powder, work the same with honey into little 

 balls, of which they must swallow one or two down 

 every morning fasting, and in a short time they shall 

 have very clear voices." Shakspeare mentions mustard 

 as a condiment in his play, "Taming the Shrew," act 

 vi. , scene iii. , where Gi itmio says to Katliarina, ' ' What 

 say you to a piece of beef and mustard?" It is also 

 mentioned in his play " As you like it," in connection 

 with pancakes (see scene iii.). In Evelyn's time, 

 Tewkesbury was famous for its mustard. The seed, 



Coles tells us, in 1657, used to be ground there and 

 made up into balls, which were brought to London 

 and other remote places as being the best the world 

 affords. Mustard used formerly to be largely culti- 

 vated and manufactured in the county of Durham ; 

 but until the year 1720 the seed used to be pounded 

 in a mortar and coarsely separated from the black 

 integuments of the seeds, and in that rough state 

 prepared for use. About the year mentioned an old 

 woman of the name of Clements, resident at Durham, 

 conceived the idea of grinding the seed in a mill, and 

 to pass the meal through the several processes which 

 are resorted to in making flour from wheat. The 

 secret she kept for many years to herself, and in the 

 period of her exclusive possession of it supplied the 

 principal parts of the kingdom, and in particular the 

 metropolis with this article ; and George I. stamped 

 it with fashion by his approval. Mrs. Clements used 

 to travel twice a year to London for orders, and was 

 able to pick up a small fortune. From this woman's 

 residence at Durham, it acquired the name of ' ' Durham 

 mustard" (Mechanic's Magazine, vol. iv., p. 87). 

 The seeds of Sinapis arvensis, charlock, and Kaphanus 

 raphanistrum, the wild radish common in our corn- 

 fields, are often sold and used as a substitute for 

 mustard-seed. The seed of the black mustard, like 

 that of the wild sort, and also of the wild radish, if 

 sown below the depth of three or four inches, will 

 remain in the ground for ages without germinating : 

 hence when once introduced it is difficult to extirpate. 

 Whenever they throw the earth out of their ditches 

 in the Isle of Ely, the banks come up thick with 

 mustard, and the seeds falling into the water and 

 sinking to the bottom will remain embalmed in the 

 mud for ages without vegetation (Loudon's "Ency- 

 clopaedia of Agriculture "). 



Sinapis alba appears to be a native of the more 

 southern countries of Europe and Western Asia. It 

 is now cultivated not only as a garden herb, but is 

 grown very largely as an agricultural crop, chiefly as 

 food for sheep or to be ploughed in for manure in its 

 green state. Mustard is extensively cultivated in the 

 Fen lands of Lincolnshire and Cambridge, also in 

 Essex and Kent. Its medicinal properties are well 

 known ; in its action it is an irritant, stimulant, emetic, 

 and stomachic. 



Some authors think Sinapis is derived from sino to 

 hurt, and opts the eyes, from the pungency of the 

 plant causing the eyes to water ; others from the Celtic 

 nup (modern Gaelic neup) a turnip which belongs 

 to this tribe. Our word "mustard" is derived from the 

 French moutarde, but in early times it was, both here 

 and on the Continent, sauve or senevi. Some 

 authors assert that the etymology of this plant was 

 changed from the following circumstance. In 13S2 

 Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was marching 

 against his rebellious subjects of Ghent, and the city 

 of Dijon, which traded largely in senevc, supplied 

 him with a thousand men-at-arms, for whicli service 



