73 



except in cases of great necessity, and remains 

 untouched, if other food be obtainable, giving a 

 deceitful appearance of verdure to a naked pasture. 

 It yet retains a place in some of our dispensatories ; 

 but its medicinal virtues are probably never made 

 trial of in modern practice, the lenient assuasives of 

 our forefathers seeming unequal to contention with 

 the constitutions of these days. I know not any 

 use to which it is applicable but for the dyer. Our 

 poorer people a few years ago used to collect it by 

 cart-loads about the month of July ; and the season 

 of " woodwaxen" was a little harvest to them : but 

 it interfered greatly with our haymaking. Women 

 could gain each about two shillings a day, clear of 

 all expenses, by gathering it ; but they complained 

 that it was a very hard and laborious occupation, 

 the plant being drawn up by the roots, which are 

 strongly interwoven in the soil. The dyer gave 

 them eightpence for a hundred weight ; but I fear 

 the amount was greatly enhanced by the dishonest 

 practice of watering the load, for the specious pur- 

 pose of keeping it green ; and the old woodwaxers 

 tell me, that, without the increase of weight which 

 the water gave the article, they should have had 

 but little reward for their labour. Greediness here, 

 however, as in most other cases, ruined the trade, 

 the plant becoming so injured and stinted by re- 

 peated pullings, as to be in these parts no longer 

 an object worth seeking for; and our farmers 

 rather discountenance the custom, as the " green- 

 weed 1 ' preserves and shelters at its roots a consider- 



