124 
ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
modern palate to produce nauseous messes. The making of these 
dishes required onions and leeks, parsley, thyme, and many 
similar herbs, or, on the other hand, in order to counteract the 
strong flavours of these it was usual to serve also conserves of 
acid fruits, such as the crab apple, the wild cherry, the bullace, 
and the hips of the dog-rose. 
The servitors, however, of the monasteries, the labourers on the 
farms, and the poorer classes generally, including the travellers, 
could not obtain these luxuries except on rare occasions, and for the 
food of these people who comprised the mass of the population, 
fresh and dried vegetables were the chief commodity. That is 
the reason why we find so many kinds of herbs cultivated for 
their use, such as we regard only as wild plants, and to which 
the name of vegetable hardly applies in these days. There were 
beans of some kind, but the chief herbs grown were comfrey, 
yarrow, garlic, plantain, nettles, betony, teasle, and others, as well 
as aromatic plants like sage, mint, vervain, marjoram, tansy, 
parsley, the fleshy sedums, wormwood, basil thyme, hyssop, prim- 
rose, and many similar ones. Nor must fennel, periwinkle, 
Alexanders, and the hawthorn be omitted, because there is no 
doubt these were very extensively cultivated as staple foods or to. 
mingle with the meats. From an excellent book on 11 The Feate 
of Gardening,"* written about 1440, we find the names of all 
these plants and many others, making a total of nearly 100, which 
were freely grown in England as articles of food. 
During the centuries, when continual struggles were taking 
place between the Barons and the King or against continental 
foes, the religious houses had been left for the most part in 
peace and unmolested, so that from year to year the same kinds 
of herbs were grown with but little change. 
Flowers were not sought after for the sake of their beauty as 
with us, but were added from time to time to the pleasure 
gardens of the richer houses in order to supply material for 
the adornment of the shrines, to form wreaths for the officiating" 
priest on feast days, and to deck the lighted candles at the altar, 
or to place on the graves of the departed. This custom is alluded 
to by Shakespeare, who mentions the " pale primrose," " the 
azur'd harebell," and " the leafe of eglantine," amongst the 
" fairest flowers " to be laid on the " sad grave, "f 
The yellow flag and purple irises and tall white lilies were 
amongst the favourites grown, all known by the name of " lilies " 
in those days, the campion, St. John's wort, columbine, mallow 
ind crane's bills, together with lavender, rosemary, and thyme. 
With these herbs and flowers being continually planted at fixed 
* By John Gardener, MS., Trinity College, Cambridge, 
t Cymbcline, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
