SHAKESPEARE'S GARDEN 
5 1 
Wickham Legg, the authority on all matters per¬ 
taining to the coronation rites, tells us that only four 
Kings had a right to be anointed and crowned—and 
that those of England and France were among them 
-—and alone were entitled to the holy oil called 
“ cream," which was made of a mixture of olive-oil 
and balm, and used in the Sacraments of Confirma¬ 
tion and Ordination, and in the consecration of 
Bishops. Richard II., to make stronger his slender 
right to the throne, invented a myth that the Blessed 
Mary had given St. Thomas of Canterbury the cream 
for anointing Kings, preserved in a golden eagle, 
but discovered by Divine revelation towards the close 
of his reign. Whereupon he desired to be anointed 
anew. At the coronation the King is anointed with 
holy oil on the hands, breast, between the shoulders, 
the elbows, and in the form of a cross upon the head; 
then, lastly, the holy cream is used in the same form 
and position as the last anointing with oil on the 
head, in the form of a cross (“ The Sacring of 
English Kings," pp. 5-7). 
But it is not only the foreign plant: we have 
naturalized in the South of England the bastard 
balm, Melissa officinalis, L., a native of the middle and 
South of Europe, with white corolla spotted with rose. 
It is perhaps alluded to in the Merry Wives of 
Windsor, V. v. 65 : 
The several chairs of order look you scour 
With juice of balm and every precious flower ; 
and again in Antony and Cleopatra, when the latter 
considers death “ as sweet as balm." 
A plant the reverse of sweet is the hyssop; yet 
a handsome plant, no t with standing, with rich, deep 
purple flowers and, unfortunately, unpleasant smell; 
Like the balm, it is a labiate and native of the 
southern parts of Europe. It takes its specific name 
4—2 
