370 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
aroma for flavouring dishes, and comforting the stomach ; but 
at present its domestic service is solely for fragrance, and for 
scenting the household linen. Nevertheless, Lavender water 
as a spirit comes into handy appliance for a restorative against 
faintness, palpitations, or spasms. It proves refreshing to the 
sense of smell, and.if taken as a speedy stimulant, dispels flatulence 
whilst reviving the spirits. The sweet-smelling shrub is grown 
largely for market purposes in Surrey, Hertfordshire, and 
Lincoln, affording its essential oil from the flowering tops. These 
“spikes ” of Lavender contain tannin, and a resinous camphor. 
Ordinarily the Lavender water of commerce is a misleading 
compound of various scents. During the twelfth century a 
washerwoman was ordinarily known in the north as a Lavenderess, 
whence comes our name Laundress. “Ill now lead you,” 
says Piscator, in Walton’s Compleat Angler (1653), “ to an honest 
ale-house, where we shall find a cleanly room, Lavender in the 
window, and twenty ballads stuck about the wall.” Again, 
“a match, good master! let’s go to that house, for the linen looks 
white, and smells of Lavender: and I long to be in a pair of 
sheets that smell so.” This tavern was probably the “ Angler’s 
Inn,” near Hoddesdon, Herts, called then the “ Rye House.” 
Charles Lamb pronounced, “It might sweeten a man’s temper 
at any time to read the Compleat Angler.’ Conserves of Lavender 
were served at table in Gerarde’s day. This fragrant herb is- 
hostile by its powerful aromatic odour to pestilent flies, fleas, 
and other such troublesome insects which assail the person. 
Even, say the Reliquiw Antique, “ Flys populum Domini caedunt ” 
—“ Fleas afflict the people of the Lord!” It is told on good 
authority that the lions, and tigers, in our Zoological Gardens 
are strangely affected by the smell of Lavender, and become 
docile under its influence. A tea brewed of moderate strength 
from Lavender tops is excellent for relieving headache from 
fatigue, or exhaustion ; also to mop the temples with Lavender 
water. Again, for palsied limbs, friction with a spirit of Lavender 
will powerfully stimulate towards restoring the use thereof. 
“Tt profiteth them much,” says Gerarde, “that have the palsy 
if they be washed with the distilled water from the Lavender 
flowers, or are anointed with the oil made from the flowers, and 
olive oil, in such manner as the oil of Roses is used.” 
“In each bright drop there is a spell, 
*Tis from the soil we love so well, 
From English gardens won.” 
