n6 A GARDEN OF HERBS 



and the little that we see of it in comparison with these 

 wonders. The Greek physicians had the highest opinion 

 of sage, and they called it the sacred herb. Wherever sage 

 is found we read in early and late times equally its praises." 

 He goes on to say he remembered " a woman of the little 

 town of Stanground, near Peterborough, so old that for that 

 reason only she was called a witch. About five yards 

 square of ground, enclosed with a mud wall, before the 

 door of her little habitation was planted with sage, and 

 'twas not only her account but that of all the place that 

 she lived upon it. Her exact age could not be known, 

 for she was older than the register, but the people in general 

 remembered their fathers calling her the old woman. In 

 the cathedral church of Peterborough, on the left hand 

 as one enters the great isle, is a picture and monumental 

 inscription of a man who was once sexton of the place I 

 think the name is Scarlet who lived so long in that office 

 as to bury, so says the inscription, all the inhabitants of 

 the place twice over. The full date of his age is not men- 

 tioned, but he was considered by more than one generation 

 as a living miracle. There is great reason to attribute this 

 also to sage, for I remember to have seen at that place when 

 I was a boy a spot of ground near the churchyard where 

 there was at that time left against an old south wall of stone 

 the remainder of a broad, oak bench, which they then used 

 to call this old man's bed; on this 'tis said he slept away 

 almost the whole day, during the latter years of his life, 

 By it there were then, and perhaps are still, some antient 

 tufts of sage and rue planted alternately, which mixed 

 together he used to make his drink. People there remember 

 still an old Latin line which he learned, I suppose, from 

 some clergy of the place and which he was continually 

 repeating." The leaves and seeds of sage, Sir John Hill 

 says, possess the greatest powers. " I have been engaged 

 at times some years in this my garden at Bayswater (I 

 thank God, the King and my great Patron gives me ample 

 opportunity). The common red sage has the greatest 

 virtue, and also that which Dioscorides says grows in barren, 



