THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS 13 



helmets, their leather-covered shields and deadly short swordSi 

 We see them and their womenkind wearing golden ornaments 

 at their feasts, the tables laden with boars' flesh and venison 

 and chased cups of ale and mead. We see these same halls at 

 night with the men sleeping, their " byrnies " and helmets 

 hanging near them, and in the dim light we can make out also 

 the trophies of the chase hanging on the walls. We read of 

 their mighty deeds, and we know at least something of the 

 ideals and the thoughts of their great men and heroes. But 

 what of that vast number of the human kind who were always 

 in the background ? What of the hewers of wood and drawers 

 of water, the swineherds, the shepherds, the carpenters, the 

 hedgers and cobblers? Is it not wonderful to think that in 

 these manuscripts we can learn, at least to some extent, what 

 plant life meant to these everyday folk? And even in these 

 days to understand what plant life means to the true countryman 

 is to get into very close touch with him. Not only has suburban 

 life separated the great concentrated masses of our people from 

 their birthright of meadows, fields and woods; of Nature, in 

 her untamed splendour and mystery, most of them have never 

 had so much as a momentary glimpse. But in Saxon times 

 even the towns were not far from the unreclaimed marshes and 

 forests, and to the peasant in those days they were full not 

 only of seen, but also of unseen perils. There was probably 

 not a Saxon child who did not know something of the awe of 

 waste places and impenetrable forests. Even the hamlets lay 

 on the very edge of forests and moors, and to the peasant these 

 were haunted by giant, elf and monster, as in the more inacces- 

 sible parts of these islands they are haunted still to those who 

 retain something of primitive imagination. And when we study 

 the plant lore of these people we realise that prince and peasant 

 alike used the simple but mysterious herbs not only to cure 

 them of both physical and mental ills, but to guard them from 

 these unseen monsters. Of the reverence they paid to herbs 

 we begin to have some dim apprehension when we read of the 



