8 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



scientific lines. He relied on the old heathen superstitions, pro- 

 bably from an instinctive feeling that in pagan rehgion, combined 

 with the herb lore which had been handed down through the 

 ages, the mass of the people had a deep-rooted faith. Nothing 

 is more obvious in the Leech Book than the fact that the virtues 

 ascribed to the different herbs are based not on the personal 

 knowledge of the writer, but on the old herb lore. This gives 

 the Leech Book its special fascination; for it is the oldest 

 surviving manuscript in which we can learn the herb lore of our 

 ancestors, handed down to them from what dim past ages we 

 can only surmise. We have, therefore, to bear in mind that 

 what may strike our modern minds as quaint, or even grotesque, 

 is in the majority of instances a distorted form of lore which 

 doubtless suffered many changes during the early centuries of 

 our era. Nearly all that is most fascinating in the Leech Book 

 is of very ancient Indo-Germanic or Eastern origin, but one 

 cannot help wondering how much the Saxons incorporated of 

 the herb lore of the ancient Britons. Does not Pliny tell us 

 that the Britons gathered herbs with such striking ceremonies 

 that it would seem as though the Britons had taught them to 

 the Persians? 



One cannot read Bald's manuscript without being struck by 

 his remarkable knowledge of native plants and garden herbs. 

 We are inferior to our continental neighbours in so many arts 

 that it is pleasant to find that in the ancient art of gardening 

 and in their knowledge of herbs our Saxon forefathers excelled. 

 It has been pointed out by eminent authorities that the Anglo- 

 Saxons had names for, and used, a far larger number of plants 

 than the continental nations. In the Herbarium of Apuleius, 

 including the additions from Dioscorides, only 185 plants are 

 mentioned, and this was one of the standard works of the early 

 Middle Ages. In the Herbarhcs of 1484, the earliest herbal 

 printed in Germany, only 150 plants are recorded, and in the 

 German Herharius of 1485 there are 380. But from various 

 sources it has been computed that the Anglo-Saxons had names 



