OF SUNDRY HERBS 107 



heade whanne a man slepes, it doth away evell spirites and 

 suffereth not to dreeme fowle dremes ne to be afeade. But 

 he must be out of deedely synne for it is an holy tree. Lavender 

 and Rosemary is as woman to man and White Roose to Reede. 

 It is an holy tree and with ffolke that been just and Right- 

 fulle gladly e it groweth and thryveth." In this MS. there 

 is recorded an old tradition I have never seen elsewhere : 

 that rosemary " passeth not commonly in highte the highte 

 of Criste whill he was man in Erthe," and that when the 

 plant attains thirty-three years in age it will increase in 

 breadth, but not in height. Perhaps there was no time 

 when rosemary was more loved than in Tudor times. At 

 every wedding branches of gilded rosemary were given by 

 the bridesmaids to the bridegroom. A bunch of it was a 

 pretty New Year gift ; and sprigs were thrown " for remem- 

 brance " into the grave by the dead persons' friends and 

 relatives. Hentzner mentions in his Travels (1598) that in 

 English gardens the walls were frequently covered with 

 rosemary, and at Hampton Court he says : " it was so planted 

 and nailed to the walls as to cover them entirely." Gerard 

 tells us " wild rosemary groweth in Lancashire in divers 

 places, especially in the fielde called Little Reede amongst 

 the Hurtleberries near unto a small village called Mandslay, 

 there found by a learned gentleman often remembered in 

 our History (and that worthily), Master Thomas Hesketh." 

 The double-flowered rosemary is mentioned by Parkinson 

 in his Paradisi, but he adds that it is " more rare than all 

 the other because few have heard thereof, much less scene 

 it and myself am not aquainted with it but am bold to 

 deliver it upon credit. It hath stronger stalks, not so easie 

 to breake, fairer, bigger and larger leaves of a faire greene 

 colour and the flowers as double as the Larkes heele or spurre. 

 This I have only by relation which I pray you accept untill 

 I may by sight better enforme you." He describes the wood 

 of rosemary being used to make lutes " or such like instru- 

 ments/' and also carpenters' rules. Rosemary flowers are, 

 as every one knows, one of the most exquisite shades of blue 

 imaginable, and the Spaniards say that the flowers were 



