Notes and Illustrations. 261 
2, cap. 501): ‘Iuglans ficubus et Ruta medicina omnibus venenis’: 
Wallnuts with Figs and Rue is a preservative against all poison. 
Schol. Salern. reckons Walnuts for one of the six things that resist 
poyson: ‘Allia, Nux, Ruta, Pyra, Raphanus cum Theriaca: 
Heec sunt Antidotum contra mortale: venenum.’ 
Garlicke, Rue, Peares, Treacle and Nuts: 
Take these and then no deadly poyson hurts. 
Mithridates the great: his preservative was (as is recorded by 
Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. 23, c. 18), ‘ Zwo Wallnuts, two Figs, 20 leaves 
of Rue and a grain of salt stamped together,’ which taken no 
poyson that day could hurt him. Greene Wallnuts about Midsom- 
mer distilled and drunk with vineger, are accounted a certain pre- 
servative against the Pestilence.”—Austen’s Treatise of Fruit Trees, 
1657. ‘* Walnuts be hurtful to the memory, and so are Onyons, 
because they annoy the eyes with dazeling dimnesse through a 
hoate vapour.”—T. Newton, Touchstone, ed. 1581, f. 1254. The 
original prescription of the antidote of Mithridates, discovered by 
Pompey among the archives of the king, was very simple. Q. 
Serenus tells us that 
‘** Magnus scrinia regis 
Cum raperet victor, vilem deprehendit in illis 
Synthesin, et vulgata satis medicamina risit : 
Bis denum rutz folium, salis et breve granum, 
Juglandesque duas, terno cum corpore ficus.” 
Cf. Piers Plowman, C. Text, Pass. xiii. 143: 
“As in a walnote withoute ys a byter barke, 
And after pat biter barke be pe shele aweye, 
Ys a curnel of comfort kynde to restorie.” On which 
see Mr. Skeat’s note. 
34. 26. ‘‘ Warden appulles rosted, stued, or baken, be nutrytyue, 
and doth comfort the stomache, specyally yf they be eaten with 
comfettes.”—Andrew Boorde’s Dyetary,.ed. Furnivall, E.E.T. Soc. 
p. 284. And again, zdzd. p. 291, as a remedy for the Pestilence: 
‘*Let hym vse to eate stued or baken wardens, yf they can be 
goten; yf not, eate stued or baken peers, with comfettes: vse no 
grosse meates, but those the which be lyght of dygestyon.” 
35. 3. ‘‘ Froth” refers here to veal and pig and lamb, all three. 
Halliwell suggests fender as the meaning. It seems to mean pulpy 
or light. 
35. 4. “Be greedie in spending,” that is, he who is eager to 
spend and careless in saving, will soon become a beggar, and he 
who is ready to kill, and unskilful in storing, need look for no 
plenty. 
35. 5. There are certain wheels called Dredge Wheels, by the 
use of which loads may be carried thro’ meadows, even if it be not 
a frost.—T. R. 
30. 7. ‘“‘ Doue houses.” The Norfolk and Suffolk rebels, under 
