I04 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



forth a declaration permitting " Lawfull recreations after 

 divine service, and allowed that women should have 

 leave to carry rushes to the church for the decoring of 

 it according to old custome."^ Rushes are still strewed 

 on Whitsunday at the church of St Mary Radcliffe, 

 in Bristol, and the day is often called "Rush-Sunday" 

 there in consequence. 



In the accounts of St Margaret's, Westminster, there 

 is a payment made for "herbs strewn in the church on 

 a day of thanksgiving" in 1650. Coles (1656) says: 

 " It is not very long since the custome of setting up 

 Garlands in Churches, hath been left off with us, and in 

 some places setting up of Holly, Ivy, Rosemary, Dayes, 

 Teiv, etc., in Churches at Christmas, is still in use."^ 

 Later, the custom seems almost entirely to have dropped, 

 and in an article in the Quarterly (1842), the writer is 

 torn between pious aspirations and loyalty to the church 

 views of the day : "We cannot but admire the practice 

 of the Church of Rome, which calls in the aid of floral 

 decorations on her festivals. If we did not feel con- 

 vinced that it was the most bounden duty of the Church 

 of England at the present moment to give no un- 

 necessary offence by restorations in indifferent matters, 

 we should be inclined to advocate, notwithstanding the 

 denunciation of some of the early Fathers, some slight 

 exceptions in the case of our own favourites." 



The decorations of English houses were much admired 

 by Dr Levinus Lemmius in 1560, when he visited us. 

 " And beside this, the neate cleanliness, the exquisite 

 finenesse, the pleasaunt and delightfull furniture in every 

 poynt for household, wonderfully rejoiced me ; their 

 chambers and parlours strawed over with sweet herbes 

 refreshed me."^ Further on, he praises "the sundry 

 sortes of fragraunte floures " about the rooms. Parkinson 



1 Fuller's "Church History," Book X. 1655. 2 n Art of Simpling." 

 'Harrison's "Description of England." Ed. by Furnivall, 1877. 



