OF SWEET SCENTS 209 



taigne, " might in my opinion draw more use and good from 

 odours than they do. For myself, I have often perceived 

 that according unto their strength and quality they change 

 and alter and move my spirits and make strange effects in 

 me, which makes me approve the common saying that the 

 invention of the incense and perfumes in churches so ancient 

 and so far diffused throughout all nations and religions had a 

 special regard to rejoice, to comfort, to quicken, to rouse, and 

 to purify our senses so that we might be the apter and readier 

 unto our contemplations." 



Artificial scents have had a long enough reign in England, 

 and perhaps we shall be wise enough to return to the simple 

 old home-made rose, lavender, jasmine and other sweet 

 waters, the pomanders and scented wash-balls of our great- 

 great-grandmothers. And is not a garden full of fragrant 

 herbs a perpetual delight? Are there any bought scents 

 so delicious and exhilarating as wild thyme, marjoram and 

 rosemary ? There is something so clean and wholesome in 

 them that one feels the old herbalists were right when they 

 said that to smell these herbs continually would keep any one 

 in perfect health. They are so full of sunshine and sweetness 

 that it seems there can be no tonic like them, and it is curious 

 how appreciative invalids are of sweet-scented herbs. Flower 

 scents are often too heavy for them, but a bunch of fragrant 

 herbs seems a perpetual joy. In London, where one can 

 buy all the costliest and most beautiful flowers in or out of 

 season, does anything bring a breath of the country air so 

 perfectly as a boxful of lavender? " There are few better 

 places for the study of scents," says Mrs. Bardswell, " than 

 the herb garden. Here fragrance depends more on the leaves 

 of plants than on the flowers. One secret is soon discovered. 

 It is the value of leaf-scents. Flower-scents are evanescent ; 

 leaf -odours are permanent. On the other hand, leaf -odours 

 though ready when sought, do not force themselves upon us, 

 as it were, like flower-scents, which we must smell whether we 

 will or no. Leaf -scents have to be coaxed out by touching, 

 bruising or pressing; but there they are. After all, that 

 is the great point, and long after the summer flower-scents 

 p 



