HERBS CHIEFLY USED IN THE PAST 91 



The last lines occur in a description of the frost in 1654. 

 None of these quotations refer to the plant. alone ; but to 

 that kind of cake or frittter called taansie, and of which 

 Tansy leaves formed an ingredient. Tansy must be 

 " eaten young, shred small with other herbes, or else, 

 the juiyce of it and other herbes, fit for the purpose 

 beaten with egges and fried into cakes (in Lent and in the 

 Spring of the year) which are usually called Tansies." 

 Though Parkinson speaks of their being eaten in Lent 

 (as they no doubt were), the special day that they were 

 in demand was Easter Day, and of this practice Cul- 

 pepper has a good deal to say. Tansies were then eaten 

 as a remembrance of the bitter herbs eaten by the Jews at 

 the Passover. " Our Tansies at Easter have reference to 

 the bitter herbs, though at the same time 'twas always the 

 fashion for a man to have a gammon of bacon, to show 

 himself to be no Jew." This little glimpse of an old 

 practice comes from Selden's Table Talk and the idea of 

 taking this means to declare one's self a Christian is really 

 delightful. I must quote again from Brand to show an- 

 other very extraordinary Easter Day custom. " Belithus, 

 a ritualist of ancient times, tells us that it was customary 

 in some churches for the Bishops and Archbishops them- 

 selves to play with the inferior clergy at hand-ball, and 

 this, as Durand asserts, even on Easter Day itself. Why 

 they should play at hand-ball at this time rather than 

 any other game. Bourne tells us he has not been able 

 to discover; certain it is, however, that the present 

 custom of playing at that game on Easter Holidays for a 

 tansy-cake has been derived from thence." Stool-ball was 

 apparently a most popular amusement and Lewis in his 

 English Presbyterian Eloquence criticises the tenets of 

 the Puritans, and observes with disapproval that all 

 games where there is " any hazard of loss are strictly 

 forbidden ; not so much as a game of stool-ball 

 for a tansy is allowed." From a collection of poems 



