KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. 163 



cast into the grave. In olden days Rosemary was borne at 



funerals : 



" There's rosemary, that's for remembrance," 



said Ophelia, and strange to say, it was also worn at marriages. 

 Anne of Cleves, when she arrived at Greenwich as a bride, wore 

 "on her head a coronet of gold and precious stones, set full of 

 branches of rosemary." At a rustic wedding witnessed by Queen 

 Elizabeth at Kenilworth, " each wight had a branch of green 

 broom tied on his left arm (for that side is near the heart) 

 because rosemary was scant there." 



" Down with the rosemary and bays, 



Down with the mistletoe ; 

 Instead of Holly, now upraise 

 The greener box, for show. 



* * * 



When yew is out and birch comes in, 



And many flowers beside 

 Both of a fresh and fragrant kin 



To honour Whitsuntide. 

 Green rushes then, and sweetest bents* 



With cooler open boughs, 

 Come in for comely ornaments 



To re-adorn the house." 



HERRI CK, Candlemas Eve. 



Parkinson again refers to the flowers in houses when writing 

 about wall-flowers. " The sweetness of the flowers," he says, 

 " causeth them to be generally used in nosegayes and to deck 

 up houses." The " greater flag " was also used for the same 

 purpose. Plants were grown in rooms also, and Platt gives a 

 long paragraph with suggestions of the best plants to grow, and 

 tells how to water them, and give them air and light. Window 

 boxes, too, were used : " In every window you may make 

 square frames either of lead or of boards well pitched within ; 

 fill them with some rich earth, and plant such flowers or hearbs 

 therein as you like best." For the more shady parts of a room 

 he advises rosemary, sweet briar, bay, or germander. And 

 " in summer-time," he continues, "your chimney may be 

 trimed with a fine bank of mosse, ... or with orpin, or the 



* A sort of grass. {Agrostis.} 



II * 



