OF CORNWALL. 225 
The great efteem in which the ancient Cornifh held the Elder 
(or fambucus) is very remarkable ; the Cornu-britifti words for it are 
fcau and fcauan , and hence we have many villages', and two anci- 
ent families s denominated. It may at firft feem to be owing to the 
general fcarcity of trees that even this humble fhrub was thought 
conflderable enough to give name to fo many places ; but if we 
confider the great virtue of this plant in all its feveral parts and 
ftages, we fhall be convinced that few fhrubs deferve a greater re- 
gard. It is very hardy, enduring all weather, fuiting all foils, eaflly 
propagated by feeds and cuttings : the medicinal ufe of its leveral 
parts is extraordinary ; its leaves, buds, blolfoms, berries, pith, wood, 
and bark, have more virtues than can poflibly have room here with- 
out entering into too minute a detail ; the following are moft obvi- 
ous, and moft generally applied to for relief : The buds and leaves, 
as foon as they appear, are gathered to make baths, fomentations, and 
cataplafms for wounds, and are a remedy for inflammations, &°c. As 
foon as the flower-buds come on, they ferve to make a pickle of very 
good flavour; the flowers at their opening, infufed, communicate their 
tafte and fmell to vinegar ; infufed, and let to ftand in beft Flo- 
rence oil, excellent to be laid over bruifes and external fwellino-s, 
and, taken internally, very healing and cooling: the flowers, in 
their natural ftate, are very fudorific, and aflwage pains ; diftilled 
with Ample water make a fweet, cooling wafh for the face in fum- 
mer, which takes off inflammations of the eyes as a collyrium , is good 
for the wind in children, and a very innocent vehicle in fevers; diftilled 
on fpirits it aflwages cholical pains in adult perfons ; and there is a 
fpirit to be drawn from the elder, which the late Duke of Somerlet 
(who married the heirefs of Piercy) took for the gout, as I have 
been informed, with fuccefs. When the berries are ripe, they make 
a very wholefome fyrup in colds and fevers ; and fome make wines 
of them, by mixing rhenifh or other white wines h . Of the younger 
fappy branches, the bark pared o£F clofe to the wood makes a falve 
efficacious beyond moft others for fcalds ; this inner bark is allb 
very falutary in Dropfles, fays Mr. Ray ; the wood is clofe-grained, 
fweet, and cleanly, and beyond any other chofen by butchers for Ikewers, 
as leaft affedling their flefh : it is very beautiful alfo for turner’s-ware 
and fineering, and, for toys, of as neat a polifti as box, and the 
very pith of this ufeful fhrub is proper to cool, and make ulcers and 
wounds digeft. More ufes than thefe may occur by way of medicine, 
f Bofcauan-ros, and Bofcauan-un in St. Berian 
parifli ; two called by the name of Penfcauan in 
St. Enodor ; Enyfcauan in St. Denis ; Lefcauan in 
Sheviock ; Fenton-fcauan, name of a water in St. 
Ives ; Trefcau formerly the moft confiderable vil- 
lage in the Scilly Ifles ; Trefcau in Breg, &c. 
£ That of the Right Honourable Lord Vif- 
count Falmouth, called Bofcawen, and the Scaw- 
ens of Molinik in St. Germans, and of Carlhalton 
in Surrey. 
h Ray de Sambuco paluftri. 
M m m 
but 
