CHAPTER XXII. 
THE HERB GARDEN. 
“ Medea gather’d the enchanted herbs 
That did renew old iEson.” 
Merchant of Venice, V., 1. 
S HE Herb Garden, as an institution, has ceased to be, 
and, although it ‘Hives in history,” its claims on our 
attention as a matter of business, are few and small, 
as compared with what would have been the case had such a 
work as this been in hand three hundred, or even two 
hundred years ago. Nay, if we go back only a century we 
shall find the herb garden and the still-room, and the still- 
room maid in happy association, but they have all become 
memories embalmed for us in a peculiar odour of sanctity. 
The Herb Garden, therefore, in the historic sense, we are 
bound to ignore ; but it remains for us to say something 
useful on the herbs that are commonly in request in private 
households, and as space is very precious, we shall begin by 
suggesting a method of forming a garden of herbs that will 
probably suit the requirements of the class in whose interests, 
more especially, this work is written. 
Formation of a Herb Garden. — The month of September 
is the best time in all the year for the formation of a herb- 
garden. For all the woody aromatic plants required for 
flavouring soups and meats, such as thyme, sage, etc., a dry, 
sunny, sandy bank is the best situation possible. The fra- 
grance and flavour of these plants are much enhanced by a 
dry, rather poor calcareous soil, and full exposure to air and 
sunshine. A bank appropriated to such things might be 
made very pretty, for all these plants are at least sightly ; 
some few of them are beautiful. It is quite proper for the 
gardener to have a plantation of these useful subjects, in 
order to supply quantities when required for drying, or for 
the preparation of any cosmetics, or other purposes ; but it 
is desirable there should be a small, and we may call it a 
