LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS 181 



four hours, this is most comfortable." The chef d'ceuvre of tlie 

 collection, at least in the author's opinion, is one introduced 

 with this flourish, but it is too long for me to quote more than 

 the comprehensive title: — "The Countesse of Kent's powder, 

 good against all malignant and pestilent diseases, French Pox, 

 Small Pox, Measles, Plague, Pestilence, Malignant or Scarlet 

 Feavers, good against melancholy, dejection of Spirits, twenty 

 or thirty grains thereof being exhibited in a little warm Sack 

 or Hartshorn Jelly to a Man and half as much or twelve grains 

 to a Childe." 



Far more attractive than the volume which bears the 

 " Countesse of Kent's " name are the little-known books by 

 Tryon. They are fuU of discourses and sermons, introduced at 

 the most unexpected moments. Indeed, there are few subjects 

 on which Tryon does not lecture his readers, from giving servants 

 extra work on Sundays by having " greasy platters and Bloody- 

 Bones more on Sunday than any other Day," to sleeping in 

 feather beds. It is interesting to find that women had already 

 taken to smoking in the seventeenth century, and Tryon 

 admonishes them thus : — " Nor is it become infrequent, for 

 women also to smoak Tobacco. Tobacco being an Herb of 

 Mars and Saturn, it hath its fiery Quality from Mars, and its 

 Poysonous fulsome attractive Nature from Saturn : the common 

 use of it in Pipes is very injurious to aU sorts of people but 

 more especially to the Female Sex." Tryon seems to have been 

 somewhat of a Socialist, and he takes great delight in com- 

 miserating " Lords, Aldermen, the Rich and the Great," who 

 are driven to " heartily envying those JoUey Swains, who feed 

 only with Bread and Cheese, and trotting up to the knees in 

 Dirt, do yet with lusty limbs, and vigorous stomach, and merry 

 Hearts, and undisturbed Heads, whistle out more soUid joys 

 than the others, with all their Wealth and State can purchase." 



The most famous of all still-room books was that written 

 by Sir Kenelm Digby, the friend of Kings and philosophers and 

 himself a man of science, a doctor, an occultist, a privateer and 



