SAMPHIRE. 205 



The samphire-gatherers in early days, we 

 may conclude, met with a ready sale for this 

 salad, as we have accounts of its being regu- 

 larly cried through the streets of London. 

 In later days, Phillips sang its praises in his 

 happy style : 



"Nor untrembling canst thou see, 



How from a craggy rock, whose prominence 

 Half overshades the ocean, hardy men, 

 Fearless of rending winds and dashing waves, 

 Cut Sampire, to excite the squeamish gust 

 Of pamper'd luxury." 



Gerard, who composed his Herbal about 

 Shakespeare's time, informs us, that " Sam- 

 pier was then thought the pleasantest sauce, 

 most familiar and best agreeing with man's 

 bodie, both for digestion of meates, break- 

 ing of the stone, and voiding of grauell." 

 He adds, " The leaues kept in pickle, and 

 eaten in sallads with oil and vinegar, is a 

 pleasant sauce for meate, and stirreth vp an 

 appetite to meate." At that period it was 

 often called Crestmarine, and Gerard no- 

 tices, that the " Rock sampier groweth on 

 the rocky cliffes at Douer, Winchelsey, by 

 Rie, about Southampton, the Yle of Wight, 

 and most rockes about the west and north- 

 west parts of England." 



