47 2 
Old Time Gardens 
read in a letter a century and a half old of a happy 
group of people riding out to the house of the 
provincial governor of New York ; all gathered 
Rose leaves in the governor’s garden, and the gov- 
ernor’s wife started the distilling of these Rose 
leaves, in her new still, into Rose water, while all 
drank syllabubs and junkets — a pretty Watteau-ish 
scene. 
The hips of wild Roses are a harvest — one 
unused in America in modern days, but in olden 
times they were stewed with sugar and spices, as 
were other fruits. Sauce Saracen, or Sarzyn, was 
made of Rose hips and Almonds pounded together, 
cooked in wine and sweetened. I believe they are 
still cooked by some folks in England, but I never 
heard of their use in America save by one person, 
an elderly Irish woman on a farm in Narragansett. 
Plentiful are the references and rules in old cook- 
books for cooking Rose hips. Parkinson says : 
“ Hippes are made into a conserve, also a paste like 
licoris. Cooks and their Mistresses know how to 
prepare from them many fine dishes for the Table.” 
Gerarde writes characteristically of the Sweet- 
brier, “ The fruit when it is ripe maketh most 
pleasant meats and banqueting dishes, as tarts and 
such-like ; the making whereof I commit to the 
cunning cooke, and teeth to eat them in the rich 
man’s mouth.” 
Children have ever nibbled Rose hips : — 
“ I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws — 
Hard fare, but such as boyish appetite 
Disdains not. 5 ’ 
