THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS 5 



when one is reminded forcibly of that worship of Demeter, 

 " nea.rer to the Earth which some have thought they could 

 discern behind the definitely national mythology of Homer." 

 They believed that the sick could be cured by conjurations and 

 charms, as firmly as we believe to-day in curing them by sug- 

 gestion — is there any real difference between these methods? 

 — and when one reads the charms which they used in adminis- 

 tering their herbs one cannot help wondering whether these 

 were handed down traditionally from the Sumerians, those 

 ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia who five thousand years 

 before Christ used charms for curing the sick which have now been 

 partially deciphered from the cuneiform inscriptions. But before 

 studying the plant lore therein contained, it may be as well to 

 take a preliminary survey of the four most important manuscripts. 

 The oldest Saxon book dealing with the virtues of herbs 

 which we possess is the Leech Book of Bald, dating from about 

 A.D. 900-950. Unlike some other MS. herbals of which only a 

 few tattered pages remain, this perfect specimen of Saxon work 

 has nothing fragile about it. The vellum is as strong and in 

 as good condition as when it first lay clean and untouched 

 under the hand of the scribe — Cild by name — who penned it 

 with such skill and loving care. One's imagination runs riot 

 when one handles this beautiful book, now over a thousand 

 years old, and wonders who were its successive owners and how 

 it has survived the wars and other destructive agencies through 

 all these centuries. But we only know that, at least for a time, 

 it was sheltered in that most romantic of all English monasteries, 

 Glastonbury. 1 This Saxon manuscript has a dignity which is 

 unique, for it is the oldest existing leech book written in the 

 vernacular. In a lecture delivered before the Royal College of 



1 A catalogue of the books of that foundation cited by Wanley (Hickes, 

 Thesaur. Vol. II. Praef. ad Catalogum) contains the entry " Medicinale 

 Anglicum," and the MS. described above has on a fly-leaf the now almost 

 illegible inscription " Medicinale Anglicum." There is unfortunately no 

 record as to the books which, on the dissolution of the monasteries, may 

 possibly have found their \vay from Glastonbury to the royal library. 



