38 A GARDEN OF HERBS 



is weakest and comest last, by itselfe : distill in a pewter 

 Limbeck luted with paste to a brasse pot. Draw this in 

 May or June, when the herb is in his prime. Sir Hugh 

 Platt, Delights for Ladies, 1659. 



BALM WINE. Take twenty pounds of lump sugar and 

 four gallons and a half of water, boil it gently for one hour, 

 and put it into a tub to cool ; take two pounds of the tops 

 of green balm, and bruise them, put them into a barrel with 

 a little new yeast, and when the liquor is nearly cold pour 

 it on the balm ; stir it well together, and let it stand twenty- 

 four hours, stirring it often; then bung it tight, and the 

 longer you keep it the better it will be. From The Receipt 

 Book of Richard Briggs, many years Cook at the Globe 

 Tavern, Fleet Street, the White Hart Tavern, Holborn, and 

 at the Temple Coffee House, 1788. 



BALM WINE. Boil ten pounds of moist sugar in four 

 gallons of water for over an hour, and skim it well. Pour 

 into an earthenware vessel to cool. Bruise a pound and a 

 quarter of balm tops and put them into a small cask with 

 yeast spread on toast, and when the above liquor is cool, 

 pour it on the balm. Stir them well together, and let the 

 mixture stand for twenty-four hours, stirring it frequently ; 

 then close it up, lightly at first and more securely after 

 fermentation has quite ceased. When it has stood for six 

 or eight weeks bottle it off, putting a lump of sugar into 

 each bottle. Cork the bottle well and keep it at least a year 

 before putting it into use. Dr. Fernie, Herbal Simples, 1897. 



BALM TEA. Pour one pint of boiling water on two ounces 

 of the young tops and leaves. 



BASIL 



" This is the herb which all authors are together by the 

 ears about and rail at one another (like lawyers)." 

 Nicholas Culpepper, The English Physitian. 



There are few plants in the herb garden with more con- 

 tradictory associations than basil. Amongst all European 



