290 MY GARDEN 



domestic medical practice by means of plants still pre- 

 vails, and that there are several aged women, well versed 

 in "the physic of the field," who dose their families and 

 their neighbours with strange decoctions of " dooryard 

 grass," Tansy, Catnip, Coltsfoot, Skunk Cabbage, Elder, 

 and others, and believe unswervingly in the efficacy of 

 the ashwithe for the bite of the dread rattlesnake. 



Those little paper bags whetted my interest and 

 curiosity, and I determined to know for myself those 

 plants so bound up in the lives of our forefathers and so 

 glorified by centuries of homely usefulness. To this 

 end I began collecting all I could find, growing them in 

 the flower garden or among the vegetables, gaining 

 knowledge of their pleasant ways and becoming always 

 more imbued with their quiet charm, until the time 

 came when I could gather them together, a soft-hued, 

 sweet-breathed company, into a garden of their own. 



The planning of the herb garden was a matter for 

 much thought and research. We had seen several, only 

 one of which seemed to answer the requirements, ideal 

 as well as practical. This was at the great gardens of 

 Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames, the pattern and plant- 

 ing of which had been taken from a figure in HylPs 

 "Gardener's Labyrinthe," 1584, and had been most 

 faithfully carried out. It was made up of many small 

 beds, slightly raised and enclosed with boards firmly 

 pegged at the corners, arranged to form several quaint 

 patterns, and planted in the isolated manner that is, 



