92 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



called " A Pleasant Grove of New Fancies," 1657, 

 Brand extracts the following verses : — 



At stool-ball, Lucia, let us play 



For sugar, cakes and wine 

 Or for a tansey let us pay, 



Tlie loss be thine or mine. 



If thou, my dear, a winner be, 



At trundling of the ball. 

 The wager thou shalt have and me, 



And my misfortunes all. 



Let US hope that the stake was handsomer than it 

 sounds ! Brand quotes another very curious practice in 

 which Tansies have a share, once existing in the North. 

 On Easter Sunday, the young men of the village would 

 steal the buckles off the maidens' shoes. On Easter 

 Monday, the young men's shoes and buckles were taken 

 off by the young women. On "Wednesday, they are 

 redeemed by little pecuniary forfeits, out of which an 

 entertainment, called a Tansey Cake, is made, with danc- 

 ing. One cannot help wondering how this cheerful, if 

 somewhat peculiar custom originated ! In course of 

 time Tansies came to be eaten only about Easter-time 

 and the practice seems to have acquired at one period 

 the lustre almost of a religious rite in which super- 

 stition had a considerable share. Coles (1656) and 

 Culpepper (1652) rebel against this and show with 

 force and clearness the advantages of eating Tansies 

 throughout the spring. Coles ignores the ceremonial 

 reasons and says that the origin of eating it in the 

 spring is because Tansy is very wholesome after the 

 salt fish consumed during Lent, and counteracts the ill- 

 effects which "the moist and cold constitution of winter" 

 has made on people ..." though many understand it not 

 and some simple people take it for a matter of supersti- 

 tion to do so." This shows plainly that the idea of eating 

 Tansies only at Easter, was pretty widely spread. Cul- 



