124 Old Time Gardens 



and to counteract " Head-Ach ' from over indul- 

 gence in wine, especially if a little Sage were added. 

 It promoted love in man and diminished it in 

 woman ; it was good for the ear-ache, eye-ache, 

 stomach-ache, leg-ache, back-ache ; good for an ague, 

 good for a surfeit ; indeed, it would seem wise to 

 make Rue a daily article of food and thus insure 

 perpetual good health. 



The scent of Rue seems never dying. A sprig 

 of it was given me by a friend, and it chanced to 

 lie for a single night on the sheets of paper upon 

 which this chapter is written. The scent has never 

 left them, and indeed the odor of Rue hangs literally 

 around this whole book. 



Summer Savory and Sweet Marjoram are rarely 

 employed now in American cooking. They are still 

 found in my kitchen, and are used in scant amount 

 as a flavoring for stuffing of fowl. Many who taste 

 and like the result know not the old-fashioned mate- 

 rials used to produce that flavor, and " of the younger 

 sort" the names even are wholly unrecognized. 



Sage is almost the only plant of the English 

 kitchen garden which is ordinarily grown in America. 

 I like its fresh grayness in the garden. In the 

 days of our friend John Gerarde, the beloved old 

 herbalist, there was no fixed botanical nomenclature; 

 but he scarcely needed botanical terms, for he had a 

 most felicitous and dextrous use of words. " Sage 

 hath broad leaves, long, wrinkled, rough, and whit- 

 ish, like in roughness to woollen cloth threadbare." 

 What a description ! it is far more vivid than the 

 picture here shown. Sage has never lost its estab- 



