472 Old Time Gardens 



read in a letter a century and a half old of a happy 

 group of people riding out to the house of the 

 provincial .governor of New York; all gathered 

 Rose leaves in the governor's garden, and the gov- 

 ernor's wife started the distilling of these Rose 

 leaves, in her new still, into Rose water, while all 

 drank syllabubs and junkets a pretty Watteau-ish 

 scene. 



The hips of wild Roses are a harvest one 

 unused in America in modern days, but in olden 

 times they were stewed with sugar and spices, as 

 were other fruits. Sauce Saracen, or Sarzyn, was 

 made of Rose hips and Almonds pounded together, 

 cooked in wine and sweetened. I believe they are 

 still cooked by some folks in England, but I never 

 heard of their use in America save by one person, 

 an elderly Irish woman on a farm in Narragansett. 

 Plentiful are the references and rules in old cook- 

 books for cooking Rose hips. Parkinson says : 

 " Hippes are made into a conserve, also a paste like 

 licoris. Cooks and their Mistresses know how to 

 prepare from them many fine dishes for the Table." 

 Gerarde writes characteristically of the Sweet- 

 brier, " The fruit when it is ripe maketh most 

 pleasant meats and banqueting dishes, as tarts and 

 such-like ; the making whereof I commit to the 

 cunning cooke, and teeth to eat them in the rich 

 man's mouth." 



Children have ever nibbled Rose hips : 



"I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws 

 Hard fare, but such as boyish appetite 

 Disdains not." 



