INTRODUCTION
A BOOK OF SIMPLES
THE TABLE
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY

A BOOK OF SIMPLES

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OFORIGINAL MS.

A BOOK OF
SIMPLES

“Delirious persons here a cure may find,
To stem the phrensy and to calm the mind!”

SECOND IMPRESSION

LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON AND CO. Ltd.
100, SOUTHWARK STREET, S.E.

CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

v

INTRODUCTION

The original of this little book was found inthe library of a distinguished Essex antiquary:the document has unfortunately no history, butfrom its appearance and comprehensive characterit must have been the still-room book of some manorhouse or homestead of standing.

The manuscript is a folio composed entirely ofvellum, bound in green, with a conventional designin gold: the binding of this book is a reducedfacsimile of the original. The writing is in thehand of several persons: the spelling and absenceof punctuation are here reproduced in all theiroriginal quaintness. The book has been submittedto experts, who are of opinion that it covers aperiod of some fifty years, terminating about themiddle of the eighteenth century.

The condition of many of the rural districts ofEngland in the eighteenth century and the almost impassablestate of the roads are brought home to us by awriter in “The Gentleman’s Magazine” (1757),in the following description: “It took my horse upto the belly the second step he took on the road, andhad I not dismounted and clambered up some bushesI had been lodged there for a season.” The isolationof the country in those days is almost viinconceivable;the difficulties of travel were immense,and a survival of feudal legislation tied the labourerto the soil. Thus we may look upon the manor orfarmhouse, with its retainers, as a detached socialunit, and, in a sparsely populated country, almosta state in itself.

It is not difficult to form a picture of the ladyof the house: amid her other duties she dispenseddoles and charity to the poor around her. Throughher knowledge of simples she was also “simpler” ofall the ills that flesh is heir to, not only in the caseof man, but also of beast. The wis