90 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



name for it. The Duche men call it in Netherlande, spilboome, 

 that is, spindel tree, because they use to make spindels of it in 

 that countrey, and me thynke it maye be so well named in 

 English seying we have no other name. ... I know no good 

 propertie that this tree hath, saving only it is good to make 

 spindels and brid of cages " [bird cages]. 



The use of complexion washes was a custom on which Turner 

 was alarmingly severe. There are fewer beauty recipes in 

 his herbal than in any other only four altogether. " Some 

 weomen," we find, "sprinkle ye floures of cowslip w* whyte 

 wine and after still it and wash their faces w* that water to 

 drive wrinkles away and to make them fayre in the eyes of the 

 worlde rather then in the eyes of God, whom they are not afrayd 

 to offend." And of marygold we learn that " Summe use to 

 make theyr here yelow with the floure of this herbe, not beyng 

 contet with the naturall colour which God hath geven the." 



There is curiously little folk lore in this herbal, and most of it 

 is guarded by " some do say " or " some hold." Nevertheless, 

 with this qualification, Turner gives us fragments of folk lore 

 not to be found in other herbals. For instance, that nutshells 

 burnt and bound to the back of a child's head will make grey 

 eyes black, and that parsley thrown into fish ponds will heal 

 the sick fishes therein. Again, this is the first herbal in which 

 any account is to be found of the very old custom of curing 

 disease in cattle by boring a hole in the ear and inserting the 

 herb bearfoot. 1 



' They say it should be used thus. The brodest part of the 

 ear must have a round circle made about it w* the blood that 

 rinneth furth with a brasen botken and the same circle must 

 be round lyke unto the letter O, and when this is done without 

 and in the higher part of the ear the halfe of the foresaid 

 circle is to be bored thorowe with the foresaid botken and the 

 roote of the herbe is to be put in at the hole, when y l newe 

 wounde that hath receyued it holdeth it so fast, that it will 



1 Parkinson in his Theatrum Botanicum also mentions this use of bearfoot. 



