LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS 175 



closing years of Elizabeth's reign, and married in 1626 to the 

 Rev. the Hon. Henry Fairfax (uncle of the great Parliamen- 

 tarian General Lord Fairfax). 1 In common with the majority 

 of MS. still-room books, the Fairfax volume contains much that 

 has no immediate connection with a still-room, but is full of 

 human interest. It is a curious medley of culinary recipes, 

 homely cures, housewifely arts such as bleaching, dyeing, 

 brewing and preserving, to say nothing of hastily scribbled little 

 notes regarding lost linen (including no fewer than " xxiii 

 handkerchares ! ") and the number of fowls, etc., in the poultry- 

 yard. This last entry, which runs all down one side of a page, 

 is as follows : " I Kapon, XVI Torkies, XVIII dowkes, IIII 

 henes, II cokes, X chekins, X giese, IV sowes." 



But the most charming entry of all is : "A note of Mistress 

 Barbara her lessons on ye virginalle which she hath learned and 

 can play them," followed by a list of songs, the majority of 

 which have the entry " Mr. Bird " beside them. William Bird 

 was organist to Queen Elizabeth, and he presumably was 

 " Mistress Barbara's " music-master. She apparently also had 

 lessons from Dr. Bull, then at the height of his fame, for his 

 name appears in connection with some of the items. Amongst 

 the songs we find " My trew Love is to ye grene Wood gon," and 

 there are quite a number of dances pavanes and courantes 

 which she played. One feels very sure that " Mistress Barbara " 

 was a fascinating person, but she could not have been more 

 lovable than her sister Mary, who married Henry Fairfax. A 

 love-letter, written in Charles I.'s reign, is doubtless quite out 

 of place in a book on old herbals, but I cannot refrain from 

 quoting the following, written by Mary to her husband about 

 six years after their marriage, because it very clearly reveals 

 the character of one of the many types of women who wrote 

 these still-room books. 



1 Lord Fairfax had only a daughter (who married the Duke of Buckingham), 

 and the son of Henry and Mary Fairfax succeeded to the title. 



