I30 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



skant thear — tyed on hiz leaft arm." A wedding 

 sermon by Robert. Racket (1607) is also quoted: 

 " Rosemary . . . which byname, nature, and continued 

 use, man challengeth as properly belonging to himselfe. 

 It overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden, boasting 

 man's rule. Another property of the Rosemary is, it 

 afFecteth the hart. Let this Rosmarinus, this flower 

 of men, ensigne of your wisdom, love and loyaltie, 

 be carried not only in your hands, but in your heads 

 and harts." Ben Jonson says it was the custom for 

 bridesmaids to present the bridegroom with " a bunch 

 of Rosemary, bound with ribands," on his first appear- 

 ance on his wedding morn. Together with an orange 

 stuck with cloves, it often served as a little New 

 Year's gift ; and the same author mentions this in his 

 Christmas Masque. The masque opens by showing 

 half the players unready, and clamouring for missing 

 properties ; and Gambol, one of them, says, of New 

 year's Gift: "He has an orange and Rosemary, but 

 not a clove to stick in it." A little later, Neiv Tear's 

 Gift enters, "in a blue coat, serving-man-like, with 

 an orange and a sprig of Rosemary, gilt, on his head." 

 Wrasse/ comes too, " like a neat sempster and songster, 

 her page bearing a brown bowl drest with ribands and 

 Rosemary before her." 



For less festive occasions it had other meanings: "As 

 for Rosmarine, I lett it runne all over my garden walls, 

 not onlie because my bees love it, but because it is the 

 herb sacred to remembrance, and therefore to friendship ; 

 whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language that maketh 

 it the chosen emblem of our funeral wakes and in our 

 buriall grounds." Sir Thomas More thought this, but 

 others beside him " lett Rosmarine run all over garden 

 walls," though perhaps they had less sentiment about it ; 

 Hentzner (Travels) (1598) says that it was a custom " ex- 

 ceedingly common in England." At Hampton Court, 



