^ The ^Aromatic Herbs £g 



Evelyn in his Acetaria wrote of it, * 'Tis a plant indeed 

 with so many and wonderful properties that the assiduous 

 use of it is said to render men immortal. ' And one 

 recalls the old English proverb, ' He who would live for 

 aye must eat sage in May.' ' Sir ' John Hill, who had a 

 famous garden in Bayswater during the latter half of the 

 eighteenth century, tells us in his Vertues of British 

 Herbs, that the chief goodness of sage was to be found in 

 the sage flowers when they begin to open. ' Just when 

 the flowers of sage begin to open there is in their cups a 

 fragrant resin, highly flavoured, balmy, delicate, and to 

 the taste one of the most delicious cardials that can be 

 thought, warm and aromatic. . . . Sage properly pre- 

 pared will retard that rapid progress of decay that 

 treads upon our heels so fast in the latter years of life, 

 will preserve the faculties and memory, more valuable to 

 the rational mind than life itself without them ; and will 

 relieve that faintness, strengthen that weakness, and 

 prevent absolutely that sad depression of spirits, which age 

 often feels and always fears, which will long prevent the 

 hands from trembling, and the eyes from dimness and 

 make the lamp of life, so long as nature lets it burn, 

 burn brightly.' 



Sage tea, made either by pouring a pint of boiling 

 water on to two large handfuls of the leaves or by 

 putting the leaves into the same quantity of cold water, 

 and bringing them to the boil, is an excellent tonic, 

 and it was also used formerly as a gargle for sore throats. 

 In the old cookery and still-room books one also finds 

 more elaborate recipes for ' sage water ' (made with 

 balm, lemon, etc.), cheeses were flavoured with this herb, 

 and sage wine was very commonly made in the eighteenth 



i$3 



