SUMMER SIMPLES
By KATHLEEN M. GOAD
IT was a hot afternoon ; even the birds were silent, and the buzzing of the bees seemed to add to the drowsiness of the atmosphere in the narrow lane. Suddenly a jeep sped past, and an old countrywoman who had been stoopink to gather flowers from the grass verge below the hedge straightened herself and remarked: "Drat them things! They d' give me such a start when they go rushing past." My eyes turned to the camomile flowers she was putting in her basket, and I evidently looked my surprise, for she continued: " Ess, my dear, 'tis camomile. We," she nodded towards her two•children farther up the lane, " d' come out regular once a year to pick 'em. Good for the kidneys they be." For half an hour or more she talked of the hedgerow plants and their uses ; of an infusion of ground ivy as a substitute for tea ; of horehound as a remedy for coughs and colds ; of blackberry leaves to heal a burn ; of yarrow to staunch blood—do you remember the line in Drayton's Polyolbion?—of succory to cool the blood—do you remember Lord Dalgarno's reply to Nigel Oliphaunt when he challenged him to fight in St. James's Park? "Away with this folly, man, go dine upon soup and salad, drink succory water to cool your blood."
As her voice ran on it was suddenly quite easy to forget the blitzed city only a few miles away and to look upon the war in its true perspective, as a terrible episode in the story of the nation. The very names of the flowers she mentioned—parson-in-the-pulpit, lady's smock, bird's-eye—seemed to bring a fragrant glimpse of an older England. Shakespeare knew them well ; they were growing In the lanes when the news of the coming of the Armada was flashed from beacon to beacon along our coasts, and the children were gathering them while Nelson was keeping guard with his fleet off Cape Trafalgar. They are a part of those English things which do not change, and we believe that the children of generations to come will still love them and gather them from the hedges when Hitler has become just a foolish name in a history-book. At the top of this particular hedge a number of elder bushes was growing, and the heavy perfume from their masses of creamy blossom filled the air around. One of the children had climbed up, and was just about to snap a twig when the old countrywoman noticed what he was doing. She called to him in horror. I asked the reason, and she looked at me as if marvelling at my ignorance. " Why, don't 'ee know that 'tis terrible unlucky to pluck a twig from an elder bush? My mother used to say that it was safe enough if you asked leave first and said, 'Old lady, old lady, give me thy wood.' But I don't like the children to meddle with it anyway." She herself had planted an elder bush just outside the door of her cottage when she was first married, she told me, because it was good to keep off the witches and any other mischievous creatures. It is a wonderful plant, according to her belief, for almost every part can be used in some of the homely remedies which have been handed down from generation to generation. From its flowers one can make a lotion which is good as an eye-wash and as treatment for the skin ; an ointment is manufactured from its leaves, and from its berries the famous elderberry wine, as well as a preparation for use against winter coughs and colds.
"But," added.my countrywoman, "never put elder wood on the fire. We d' say down here: " Make a fire of elder tree, Death within your house shall be."
And if it doesn't bring death, I'm sure it d' bring quarrels in the family."
For some time she digressed and recounted the various disagree- ments between her sisters and their " in-laws," but at last I diverted the flow of talk back to the hedgerow again. She was a great believer in the goodness of nettles, which, she declared, are a positive cure for shortness of breath when boiled with honey or sugar. She also recommended the sting of the nettle as a help in the treatment of rheumatism—" my sister's arm did go quite numb with it, and the only thing that could bring back the life in it was stinging it with nettles." Many of the concoctions she described must have tasted abominably, especially the tansy pudding, of which I had heard before ; indeed, I once saw—and smelled—this preparation. Legend says that the nectar of the gods was prepared from the yellow tansy plants, and that they were given as food to the youth Ganymede when he was carried off to Olympus to be " Jove's own page " ; but if the odour which came from them in any way
resembled that of tansy pudding, tastes must have changed con- siderably through the ages.
Cures for warts are legion in all parts of the West Country, and my old countrywoman was an authority upon these. She knew them all: rubbing the wart with the pod of a broad bean and then burying the pod, dropping black pins with which the warts had been pricked, and many others. She also gave me two cures which I had not heard before ; the first was to pick nine leaves of dandelion, or heart-fever grass, as she called it, and eat three of them on three successive mornings, after which the warts will disappear. The other was connected with the tiny scarlet pimpernel, a red flower, and therefore potent against all evil influences. The method of this cure was to tie the plant on to the hand so that it covered
the war—and then to repeat the following charm over it twice a day for a fortnight :
" Herb Pimpernel, I have thee found Growing upon Christ Jesu's ground.
The same gift the Lord Jesus gave to thee
When He shed His blood upon a tree, Arise up, Pimpernel, and go with me And God bless me and all who wear thee.—Amen."
This last cure she declared to be infallible, since her mother had learnt it from a white witch many years before.
White witches, broomsticks, love charms, plants which cure the. toothache, she talked about them all, and I listened, fascinated. Most of these quaint beliefs are just nonsense, you say? Perhaps so, and yet they have their place in our tradition, and still, " Oh, mickle is the powerful grace that lies In herbs, plants, stones and their true qualities."
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