KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER JAMES I. 141 



In the Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio, just after his marriage, 

 sends his servant to Grumio to prepare the house for his bride. 

 Grumio arrives late, and in haste calls, " Where's the cook ? 

 Is supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs 

 swept ?" Such had been for long years the custom, but in 

 Henry VIII. 's reign an improvement on the plain rushes 

 became the fashion, and sweet-smelling herbs and flowers were 

 added. By Elizabeth's time this practice was much in vogue. 

 As early as 1516 " flowers and rushes " were purchased " for 

 chambers," for Henry VIII. In 1552, in Princess Elizabeth's 

 accounts, there are numerous entries of payments to a certain 

 Thomas Briefly, for " flowers and herbs by him provided for the 

 same purpose." The sum of £10 was paid in 1565 and 1567, to 

 Robert Jones, for providing boughs and flowers for the Council 

 Chamber. 1 Queen Elizabeth was so fond of having a constant 

 supply of flowers for strewing that a waiting-woman was 

 appointed with a fixed salary to have flowers always in readi- 

 ness. So late as 1713 this office had not been abolished, as 

 there is a letter extant in the State Archives, addressed to 

 Alice Blizard, who held the post of " herbe strewer to Her 

 Majesty the Queen." Parkinson, writing about what flowers 

 are suitable for laying out knots, says of both Germander and 

 Hyssop, " they must be kept in some form and proportion 

 with cutting, and the cuttings are much used as a strawing 

 herb for houses, being pretty and sweet." 



The houses must have been made very fragrant with many 

 herbs and flowers, not only strewn on the floor, but placed in 

 vases about the rooms. In the Loseley Accounts in 1556 the 

 item occurs, " a blewe potte for flowers id." 2 Parkinson says 

 of both Yew and Box, they are used " to deck up houses in the 

 winter-time." Not only in pots and vases were flowers to be 

 found, but many were skilfully arranged into little posies, and 

 worn as personal ornaments. Violets made into garlands, 

 posies, and nosegays " are delightful to look on and pleasant 

 to smell." 3 " Auriculas do seem every one of them to be a 

 nosegay alone of itself . . . they are not unfurnished with a 

 pretty sweet scent, which dothe adde an increase of pleasure 



1 Acts of the Privy Council, new series, vol. vii., 1893. 

 a ArchcBologia, vol. xxxvi. 3 Gerard. 



