POMANDERS OF THE STUARTS 243 



exact recipe by which all the different powders 

 and liquid essences are mixed with the roses, but 

 there is one rather sombre-looking brown powder, 

 soft and velvety to touch, which always brings 

 specially to mind old historic associations. It 

 consists of cloves which have been pounded by the 

 chemist into such fine powder that except for the 

 invigorating scent they are hardly recognisable. 

 In the days of the Stuarts, cloves were much used 

 to make those delightful sweet-smelling " poman- 

 ders " that we read of as counteracting the un- 

 pleasant odours of the plague. People carried a 

 perforated silver ball, and within was an orange 

 studded all over with cloves. By using a Seville 

 orange, and piercing it with innumerable holes, 

 into each of which is put a clove, and then drying 

 it at the fire until the whole assumes a brown 

 appearance, any one can try the experiment of 

 refilling their old pomander case, if they are for- 

 tunate enough to possess one. 



So much valued were cloves about three hundred 

 years ago that two companies, an English and 

 a Dutch East India Company, sought to secure 

 a monopoly of the Spice Islands and were par- 

 ticularly envious of those where the clove grew. 

 There is something so gentle, almost soothing, 

 about the powder, as it slips through one's fingers, 

 and yet there are few objects over which as re- 

 gards the rights of sale more hostile warfare has 

 been waged. 



It is when the rose garden is at its fullest that 

 lavender too is ready for picking. This happens 

 usually during one of the last days of July ; and 



