HERBS CHIEFLY USED IN THE PAST 83 



and I have not gone deeply enough into the subject to 

 find it, but the Saffron of Hereford was famed. 



At Black Marston in Herefordshire, in 1506 and again 

 in 1528, leave was granted by the Prioress of Acorn- 

 bury, to persons to cultivate Saffron extensively. 



In 1582, in spite of a continued demand for it, the 

 cultivation of Saffron seems to have decreased, for 

 Hakluyt writes in his "Remembrances for Master S." 

 [what to observe in a journey he is about to undertake]. 

 "Saffron groweth in Syria. . . . But if a vent might be 

 found, men would in Essex (about Saffron Walden) and 

 in Cambridgeshire, revive the trade for the benefit of 

 setting the poore on worke. So would they do in 

 Herefordshire by Wales, where the best of all Englande 

 is, in which place the soil yields the wilde "Saffron" 

 commonly." The soil there still yields the wilde Saffron 

 so commonly that at the present moment it is regarded 

 with disfavour, as being quite a drawback to some 

 pasture lands, but it is no longer grown there for 

 commercial purposes. Neither Gerarde (1596) nor 

 Parkinson (1640) mention Saffron-growing as an in- 

 dustry, but in 1681 "I. W." gives directions for 

 cultivating and drying it. " English Saffron," he says, 

 " is esteemed the best in the world ; it's a plant very 

 suitable to our climate and soil." At Saffron Walden it 

 continued to be grown for commerce for over two 

 hundred years, but has now been uncultivated in that 

 locality for more than a century. In Cambridgeshire, 

 however, it flourished to a later date, and the last 

 Saffron grower in England was a man named Knot, 

 who lived at Duxford in Cambridgeshire, and who grew 

 Saffron till the year 1 8 16. 



This is Turner's advice for cultivating it. 



When harvest is gone, 

 Then Saffron comes on. 

 A little of ground, 

 Brings Saffron a pound. 



