132 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



in the time of Edward IH. Old Hakluyt, writing in 

 1582, says, " It is reported at Saffron Walden that a 

 pilgrim, proposing to do good to his countrey, stole 

 a head of Saffron, and hid the same in his Palmer's 

 staffe, which he had made hollow before of purpose, 

 and so he brought the root into this realme with ven- 

 ture of his life, for if he had bene taken, by the law of 

 the countrey from whence it came, he had died for the 

 fact." It is evident from this story that even in the 

 sixteenth century saffron had been so long cultivated 

 at Walden that the true history of its introduction had 

 been lost ; and perhaps the theory of Cole in his Admn 

 in Eden, published in 1657, may not be so very far 

 wrong when he suggested that for this plant, as for so 

 many others, we are indebted to the Romans. The 

 cultivation of saffron " about Walden and other places 

 thereabouts, as corne in the fields," has long since 

 ceased ; but even now, in certain seasons, a few plants 

 will occasionally appear. This discontinuance is the 

 more to be regretted if w^e may believe our old friend 

 Gerarde, that " the moderate use thereof is good for 

 the head, and maketh the sences move quicke and 

 lively, shaketh off heavy and drowsie sleepe, and 

 maketh a man merry." 



Here and there, along the roadside wastes, which of 

 late years have been considerably curtailed, some rare 

 and interesting plants may occasionally be met with. 

 As Gerarde rode along " Colchester highway from 

 Londonward " he noticed " very plentifully by the 

 wayes side between Esterford and Wittam " the small 

 " greene-leaved Hounds' Tongue." Now Esterford 

 was the mediaeval name of the parish of Kelvedon ; 

 and there, one hundred years later, "on the London 

 road between Kelvedon and Witham, but more plenti- 



