CHAPTER III 



turner's herbal and the influence of the foreign 

 herbalists 



" In the beginning of winter the Goldfinches use muche to haunte this 

 herbe [teazle] for the sedes sake whereof they are very desyrous." — Turner's 

 Herbal, 155 1. 



Like so many sixteenth-century notabilities, William Turner, 

 commonly known as the father of English botany, was remark- 

 ably versatile, for he was a divine, a physician and a botanist. 

 He was a native of Morpeth, Northumberland, and was born in 

 Henry VKI/s reign : the exact date is unknown. His father is 

 supposed to have been a tanner. We know nothing of his 

 early education, but he entered what is now Pembroke College,^ 

 Cambridge, under the patronage of Thomas Lord Wentworth. 

 This he himself tells us in the preface to the second part of his 

 herbal, which is dedicated to Lord Wentworth of the next 

 generation. " And who hath deserved better to have my booke 

 of herbs to be given to him, than he, whose father with his 

 yearly exhibition did helpe me, beying student in Cambridge of 

 Physik and philosophy ? Whereby with some further help and 

 study am commed to this pore knowledge of herbes and other 

 simples that I have. Wherefore I dedicate unto you this my 

 litle boke, desyring you to defende it against the envious evil 

 speakers, which can alow nothing but that they do themselves : 

 and the same I give unto your Lordship, beseeching to take it 

 in the stede of a better thyng, and for a token of my good will 

 toward you, and all your father's houshold, which thing if ye 



1 Then " Marie Valence Hall." (Founded in 1347 ^Y Marie widow of 

 Aylmer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke.) 



75 



