SAVOURIES AND SIMPLES
.rte Receipt Book of Ann Blencowe A.D. 1694. (Guy Chapman. 10s. 6d.) THERE is an enchanting flavour about this receipt book compiled and kept by a lady of quality in the time of Pepys. It is in two parts—Household Receipts and Phisical Receipts—the one bulging with succulence, the other with superstition, and the mere brush of Time has coloured with charm the secrets of most unlikely things from peas soope to corn plaisters ; the spelling, the " ingredians," the artless faith in the remedies, even the careful recording of the sources of information, as in " A receipt to make ye Green Ointment that cured Lady Probyn's coachman's back." This was obtained neither from the thankful coachman norLady Probyn, but from a Mrs. Lethiculear, and was compounded mainly of sheep suet and wormwood. From the pages there dimly emerges the figure of a lady, surely plump and prim and affable, who collected these things as one nowadays collects prints, or china, or jewels. The very titles of most of them are gems : " To Do hartichock bottoms," " To do green oranges (Lady Stapleton's way)," " To make Foule Bmuth," " Tea Lozenges " (they are ' guilt'!), " Jumballs " (coloured with Chocalett or Cutchaneale), and "Quaking Pudding." The lavishness of some of these dishes would make even an alderman perspire. A roast fowl must be stuffed with " about 15 middling sizd raw oysters." " Take a buttock of beef," says Ann ; or " take 4 pounds of flouer, seven pounds of curants 6 pounds of butter 4 pounds of eggs " and so on I Even dear " Mrs. Mullis little Puddings " require 9 eggs to a pint of cream. Mistress Ann Blencowe was no niggard in the kitchen, but in the sickroom she was positively profligate with nostrums that offered as much chance of complete extinction as of ease- ment. Every patient knows how difficult a matter it is to handle a nurse—Ann Blencowe must have been a demon I
Consider this " Good in a fitt of ye Collick. To take a great quantity of chicken broth, a gallon or more." Or this for a Cough or Constimption " Take 30 garden snails and 30 earth worms of middling size, bruse ye snails and wash them and ye worms in -fair water, cut ye worms in pieces. Boil these," says Ann, " in a quart to a pint of water and strain through a flannel bag. Take a quarter of a pint of it warm," orders Ann. "Continue this course till well," admonishes Ann. She is gentler if you wish merely " To strengthen ye eyes : Let another that is young chow army seeds and then breath upon ye partys eyes " ; and there is a wild and magni- ficent happy-go-luckiness about this for a cow after the bite of a Mad Dog : " Wild Mint, wild primrose roots, and English Box : a little more of the box than the other things." Then there are the High Spirrited Pills and a remedy for ye Stone. Perhaps you doubt the 'efficacy of the latter ? It is made' of leeks, parsley root and ivy berries. " In proof," says Ann, " lay a flint stone in ye medicine and it will break in 24 hours." Proof I Dear Ann, it is enough, it is more than proof !
The book is splendidly produced, with an introduction by Professor Saintsbury, and the edition is limited to 050 copies.
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