180 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



infuse : in ye morning put it into your still, poure upon it a 

 quart of brandy. Past up your Still; you may draw about 



2 quarts of water. Sweeten it with Sugar to your Tast and tye 

 up too pennyworth of Saffron in a ragg, put it into ye water 

 and let it lye till it be colored. Squeeze it out and bottle it 

 for your use." 



" To dry Roses for sweet powder. Take your Roses after 

 they have layen 2 or 3 days on a Table, then put them into a 

 dish and sett ym on a chafering dish of Charcole, keeping them 

 stirred, and as you stir ym strew in some powder of orris, and 

 when you see them pretty dry put them into a gaily pot till 

 you use them." 



" A perfume for a sweet bagg. Take half a pound of Cypress 

 Roots, a pound of Orris, 3 quarters of a pound of Rhodium, a 

 pound of Coriander Seed, 3 quarter of a pound of Calamus, 



3 orange stick wth cloves, 2 ounces of Benjamin, and an ounce 

 of Storax and 4 pecks of Damask Rose leaves, a peck of dryed 

 sweet Marjerum, a pretty stick of Juniper shaved very thin, 

 some lemon pele dryed and a stick of Brasill ; let all these be 

 powdered very grosely for ye first year and immediately put 

 into your baggs ; the next year pound and work it and it will 

 be very good again." 



The " Countesse of Kent's " still-room book, which was one 

 of the first to be published, contains more recipes against the 

 Plague than most, and with one of these we find the instruction 

 that it must be taken three times, " for the first helpeth not." 

 Amongst much that is gruesome there is a pleasant recipe 

 entitled " A comfortable cordial to cheer the heart," which 

 runs thus : ' Take one ounce of conserve of gilliflowers, four 

 grains of the best Musk, bruised as fine as flower, then put it 

 into a little tin pot and keep it till you have need to make this 

 cordial following : Viz. : Take the quantity of one Nutmeg out 

 of your tin pot, put to it one spoonful of cinnamon water, and 

 one spoonful of the sirrup of gillifloures, ambergreece, mix all 

 these together and drink them in the morning, fasting three or 



