162 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ Angnat 31, 1871. 



the theine. The antidotal power of Tea, so strongly insisted 

 npon by the Chinese, is worth a trial, especially in cases of 

 poisoning by tartar emetic or corrosive sublimate. 



The use of Tea in certain forms of dyspepsia is a common 

 Chinese practice. If taken as a plain drink between meals it 

 seems to give tone to the stomach. It is obvious that the 

 " Tea " of onr domestic tables, a compound of milk, sugar, and 

 much water, is not the article intended to be spoken of in 

 these pages. The sooner infusum tliea is placed in the British 

 Pharmacopceia as a recognised article of the Materia lledica, 

 the more likely are we to place its employment upon a scientific 

 basi?, and thus to rescue a very important drug from the con- 

 tempt of familiarity. A tincture of Tea is not a desirable pre- 

 paration, as theine is only sparingly soluble in cold alcohol. 

 An extract of Tea, carefully prepared, would be an excellent 



preparation for trying the efiecta of Tea in the delirium of 

 fever and the stupor of intoxication. 



The Chinese are under the impression that foreigners are 

 compelled by some instinctive necessity to send and buy the 

 Tea of the land of " the Glory of Summer." Of the influence 

 of Tea upon the sobriety of our countrymen and countrywomen 

 there can be no doubt. When our poor people cease to waste 

 their Tea leaves, and begin to eat them as a dish, like the 

 people of Mongolia and Siberia, another important step will 

 have been taken in the direction of completely utilising the 

 properties of this most important article of diet and medicine. 



Brick Tea might economically be introduced into use on 

 board our ships of war, as it is cheap, portable, good, and much 

 lees perishable than ordinary Tea. — F. Poetek Smith, M.B. 

 (in Medical Times). 



COMBE 



"WHoareyon?" " Visitors to Combe Eoyal." " Ha ! Ha !" 

 Such was the query, reply, and final laugh which occurred at 

 the door of the Maltsters' Arms, at Harbleton, where we palled 

 up on an 120°-in-the-snn day of this present month of August 

 to give our horses a few mouthfuls of water. If our inter- 

 rogator had been even a better authority than a parrot we 

 should not have been deterred from proceeding to our destina- 

 tion, for we were assured by good judges that we should be 



EOYAL. 



well recompensed for enduring a drive of thirty miles under 

 such a sunshine ; those judges were right, without any refer- 

 ence to the specially excellent cider made in the parish. 



That parish is West AUington, in Devonshire, about a mile 

 from Eingsbridge. The manor was an ancient demesne of 

 the Crown in the time of the Korman monarchs, if not even 

 previously, and was given by King John to Alice de Elvers, 

 Countess of Devon, but reverted to the Crown, and was subse- 



quently granted by Henry III. to Matthew de Besils. After- 

 wards it was divided into various smaller estates, one of which 

 was certainly " all that barton known as Combe Eoyal," for a 

 barton was the demesne lands of a manor, and is named in an 

 existing deed of the time of Edward III. This barton passed 

 to various possessors until the Gilberts became its possessors, 

 and one of the Gilberts of Holwell sold it in 1736 to an 

 ancestor of the present proprietor, John Luscombe Luscombe, 

 Esq. Luscombe is a truly Devonian name (and is Anglo- 

 Saxon for " a valley of delight "), and the Luscombes of Lus- 

 combe, in the parish of Battery, held there a knight's fee in 



the time of Henry IV., were residing there in 1630, and how 

 much later we know not. The family were never ennobled, but 

 they have always borne " the grand old name of gentleman,"" 

 and we can add, from experience, that the Luscombe of the 

 present fully sustains Westcote's character of the Devon gentry,, 

 " they are civil, affable, kind, and courteous to strangers." 



Combe Eoyal undoubtedly was so named because part of the 

 King's demesne, but it also merits the distinguishing epithet 

 as one of the kings of the wooded valleys of the county. 



The entrance-lodge is at one extremity of the valley, the 

 house is at the other end, and the approach, as shown in onr 



