OF SUNDRY HERBS 51 



Months. It will have a great Settlement, therefore it 

 should be tap'd pretty high, or drawn off by Plugs. From 

 The Receipt Book of Charles Carter, Cook to the Duke of 

 Argyll, 1732. 



CLARY FRITTERS. Make a good stiff batter with half a 

 pint of new milk, four eggs, and flour; grate in a little 

 lemon-peel and some nutmeg, put in two ounces of powder 

 sugar, and a small glass of brandy ; then take a dozen Clary 

 leaves, cut away the stalks, put them into batter, taking 

 care that they have plenty of it on both sides ; have a pan 

 of boiling hog's-lard, put them in one by one, and fry them 

 quick on both sides of a light brown ; then take them out, 

 lay them on a sieve to drain a moment, put them in a dish, 

 strew powder sugar over them, and glaze them with a hot 

 iron. Note. You may dress Comfrey or Mulberry leaves 

 the same way. 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. 



COLTSFOOT 



" Black heaths are patched with coltsfoot-gold bizarre." 



W. DOWSING. 



Herbalists are never weary of telling us that when Nature 

 gives any herb in abundance it is a sure sign that it is 

 possessed of great virtue. Nettles, Yarrow, Plantain, 

 Dandelion, Coltsfoot, and a hundred other so-called " weeds " 

 all testify to the truth of this. Even in the heart of London 

 it would be difficult to find any waste land without Coltsfoot 

 growing on it. From the days of Hippocrates a decoction 

 of Coltsfoot has been held a sovereign remedy for all chest 

 troubles, and in olden days the apothecaries in Paris used 

 to paint a coltsfoot flower on their door-posts, a silent 

 testimony to their opinion of the value of the plant. Sir 

 John Hill, after dilating on the value of coltsfoot tea for 

 colds and coughs says, " the patient should also have some 

 of the leaves dried and cut small and smoke them as tobacco. 



