325 
Laurel. Bay. 
of Nero—an event, one would have thought, the opposite to 
©minous—though the winter was very mild, all these trees 
withered to the root, and that a great pestilence in Padua was 
preceded by the same phenomenon. The laurel had so great 
a reputation for clearing the air and averting contagious com¬ 
plaints, that during a raging plague, Claudius was advised by 
his physicians to remove his Court to Laurentium, so celebrated 
for its laurels. It had also the power ascribed to it of being a 
safeguard against lightning, of which Tiberius was veiy fear¬ 
ful ; and, in order to avoid which, it is said, would creep under 
his bed, and shade his head with laurel boughs. 
This superstitious idea survived to recent times. William 
Browne tells us that “ bays, being the materials of poets’ gar¬ 
lands, are supposed not subject to any hurt of Jupiter s thunder¬ 
bolts, as other trees are ; ” and also sings : 
“Where bays still grow, by thunder not struck down, 
The victor’s garland and the poet’s crown.” 
Of course, old Culpepper—who would have fully compre¬ 
hended the meaning of his significant name had he written in 
these days of all-powerful criticism — did not oveilook this 
curious belief, and accordingly we find him expatiating in his 
usual quaint style upon this tree : “ Resisting witchcraft very 
potently, as also all the evils old Saturn can do the body of 
man, and they are not a few ; for it is the speech of one and 
I am mistaken if it were not Mizaldus—that neither witch nor 
devil, thunder nor lightning, will hurt a man where a bay-tree 
is. The berries are very effectual against all poisons of 
venomous creatures, as also against the pestilence, and oiher 
infectious diseases.” 
This presumed power of averting lightning is alluded to in 
the device of the Count de Dunois, which Madame de Genlis 
mentions as being a bay-tree, with the motto, “ I defend the 
earth that bears me ; ” and Leigh Hunt, in his “ Descent of 
Liberty,” thus adverts to the belief: 
* Long have you my laurels worn, 
And though some under-leaves be tom 
Here and there, yet what remains 
Still its pointed green retains, 
And still an easy shade supplies 
To your calm-kept watchful eyes. 
Only would you keep it brightening 
And its power to shake the light- 
ning 
Harmless down its glossy ears, 
Suffer not so many years 
To try what they can bend and spoil. 
