n 4 A GARDEN OF HERBS 



Gardening and other Curious Matters (1739), says of saffron 

 that the common method of drying it in a kiln made of 

 clay with charcoal is not to be commended, as it dries all 

 the virtue out of the plant. He recommends picking an 

 ounce or two, putting it in a bladder, and carrying it about 

 till dry (they were leisurely folk in those days!), "which 

 small quantitie so dried hath been kept two years or more." 

 Saffron used to be made into balls with honey, and when 

 thoroughly dried these balls were powdered. 



Saffron likes a sandy soil. It may be grown from seed 

 or increased by offsets from the bulb in the early summer. 



To MAKE SYRUP OF SAFFRON. Take a pint of the best 

 canary, as much balm-water, and two ounces of English 

 saffron; open and pull the saffron very well, and put it 

 into the liquor to infuse, let it stand close cover'd (so as 

 to be hot but not boil) twelve hours; then strain it out 

 as hot as you can, and add to it two pounds of double 

 refined sugar; boil it till it is well incorporated, and when 

 it is cold bottle it, and take one spoonful in a little sack 

 or small cordial, as occasion serves. E. Smith, The Compleat 

 Housewife, 1736. 



SAGE 



" How can a man die who has sage in his garden ? " 

 Arabian Proverb. 



" He who would live for aye 

 Must eat sage in May." 



Old English Proverb. 



" Also take sage and marjoram 

 Hit schall the kepe in save tee 

 Sounde and clene for to bee 

 Quyken the vaynes and the mynde 

 And all thy vertues kepe in kynde 

 Comfort the herte and kepe the sight 

 No man of erthe can telle his myghte." 



Fifteenth-Century MS. Herbal. 



" This herb yf left to putrify with the blood of a serpent 

 or a bird like a oysell, if it be touched on ye brest of a man 

 he shall lose his sence or felynge the space of fifteen dayes 



