Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
Fairies 5 Blanket-flower Boy and I call them. It is odd a 
North-country name should be Adam’s Blanket. I am 
going to plant more. The Tansy in the garden is thicker 
than ever, though I have had some rooted out, and put on 
the haugh. It is said to grow wild in places near here, 
but I have not seen it wild. I am not very partial to the 
smell. The Tansy cakes obligatory at Eastertide in old 
days must have been odious, though apparently they were 
considered a dainty, as “ a Tansie 55 figures in a curious old 
bill of fare still preserved in the Marchmont archives as 
having been served before Patrick Home, Earl of March- 
mont, when keeping house in Holyrood as Lord High 
Commissioner in 1698. Here is a receipt for a plain 
Tansie out of my ancient Cookery-book which may well 
have been such as was set before his Grace the Lord High 
Commissioner : “ Take a fine stale Penny loaf, and cut the 
Crumb in thin Shaves ; put it in a Bowl, then boil a Mutch- 
kin of Cream, and when boiled, pour it over the Bread ; 
then cover the Bowl with a Plate, and let it ly a Quarter of 
an Hour ; then mix it with eight Eggs well beaten, two Gills 
of the Juice of Spinage, two Spoonfuls of the Juice of Tansy, 
and sweeten it with Sugar, Nutmeg, and a little Brandy ; 
rub your Pan with Butter, and put it in it ; then keep 
stirring it on the Fire till it is pretty thick ; then put it in a 
buttered Dish ; you may either bake it or do it in the 
Dripping-pan under Roasted Meat.” Perhaps, however, the 
following was preferred : “ To boil a Tansy, cut the bread 
as in the other Tansy, and pour a Mutchkin of boiling Milk 
on it, cover it up, then beat eight eggs with a little of the 
Grate of a Lemon or Orange, Nutmeg or Sugar; put to it 
some Juice of Spinage, and a little Tansy juice, stir all well 
together, then tye it up in a cloth, and boil it an Hour and 
a Half ; when you dish it, stick it with Candied Orange and 
cut a Seville Orange in Quarters round it, send beat Butter, 
white Wine and sugar in a Cup with it to the table. 55 
Another recipe for a Pipin Tansy was pretty much the 
same, with the addition of “ sliced pipins. 55 This, however, 
instead of being tied in a cloth, was beaten, then with the 
198 
