Strawberries Origin and History. 37 



The serpent is hidden, but very near. A moment later, Gloster enters, 

 black as night, hisses his monstrous charge, and before noon of that same 

 day poor Hastings is a headless corpse. 



Far more sad and pitiful are the scenes recalled by the words of the 

 fiendish lago type for all time of those who transmute love into 

 jealousy : 



" Tell me but this 



Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief, 

 Spotted with strawberries, in your wife's hand?" 



" I gave her such a one; 't was my first gift," 



was the answer of a man whom the world will never forgive, in spite of his 

 immeasurable remorse. 



From the poet Spencer we learn that to go a-strawberrying was one 

 of the earliest pastimes of the English people. In the " Faerie Queen " 

 we find these lines : 



" One day, as they all three together went 



To the green wood to gather strawberries, 

 There chaunst to them a dangerous accident." 



Very old, too, is the following nursery rhyme, which, nevertheless, 

 suggests the true habitat of the F. Vesca species : 



" The man of the wilderness asked me, 

 How many strawberries grew in the sea ; 

 I answered him, as I thought good, 

 'As many red herrings as grew in the wood.' " 



The ambrosial combination of strawberries and cream was first named 

 by Sir Philip Sidney. Old Thomas Tusser, of the i6th century, in his 

 work, " Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry united to as many of 

 Good Housewifery," turns the strawberry question over to his wife, and 

 doubtless it was in better hands than his, if his methods of culture were as 

 rude as his poetry : 



" Wife, into the garden, and set me a plot 

 With strawberry roots, of the best to be got ; 

 Such, growing abroad, among thorns in the wood, 

 Well chosen and picked, prove excellent good." 



Who " Dr. Boteler " was, or what he did, is unknown, but he made a 

 sententious remark which led Izaak Walton to give him immortality in 

 his work, " The Compleat Angler." " Indeed, my good schollar," the 

 serene Izaak writes, " we may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of 



