Wednesday 23 July 1662

Annotations

• N Terry F. on Sat 23 Jul 2005, 11:56pm

  “Brampton Feast”
  L&M note: A parish feast….

• N A. De Araujo on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 12:03am

  “makes me a little pettish…….;being a little vexed that my brother Tom……..,quite out of sorts in my mind……the wheather is so bad,and my house all full of wet…..Besides much disturbed…that my Lord Sandwich is lost;”
  Enough to drive someone to break an oath and drink some wine to calm his nerves! what did the use as a sedative these days? Camomille Tea?

• N A. De Araujo on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 12:05am

  errata: did they in those days

• N dirk on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 02:43am

  Camomille Tea?

  Yes, very likely. - Although a couple of beers might also do the job, but then again there’s Sam’s oath…
  

• N dirk on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 03:10am

  17th c. sedative

  Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654), the writer of “The English physitian”, London 1652, would probably have prescribed “balm” (Melissa officinalis).

  Picture: http://www.vitaminevi.com/Herb/Lemon_Balm.htm

  “It causeth the Mind and Heart to becom merry (…), and driveth away al troublesom cares and thoughts…”
  http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/culpeper/b.htm
  

• N Terry F. on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 04:06am

  Dirk, great source! Culpepper declines to describe many herbs, other plants, trees, etc., because, as he says about “balm”: “This Herb is so wel known to be an Inhabitant almost in every Garden, that I shal not need to write any Description thereof.” I wonder to what extent his 17c Readers and you 21c Annotaters* who have lived in England have a shared familiarity with these flora, many alien to me.
  (Ironic that the first one he is careful to describe, “GARDEN BAZIL or SWEET BAZIL,” is one I learned to grow in my years in Connecticut among Italian-Americans.)
  *”Annotaters” = Not tubers, but not all males.

• N Terry F. on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 04:27am

  Erratum: should be “Culpeper.”

• N Tony Eldridge on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 10:15am

  Culpeper and Balm.
  I assume this is what we call Lemon Balm which is indeed familiar in the UK as it grows like a weed, self-seeding all over the place. Lemon-scented leaves, I can imagine it being infused as a soothing tea, although personally I find a good Shiraz does the trick. How much longer can Sam stay on the wagon with all his travails?

• N Terry F. on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 10:48am

  Balm and a good Shiraz.
  Culpeper’s not keeping Sam ‘on the wagon’ (as we say in the ‘States - long offer-topic story): “Diascorides saith, That the Leaves steeped in Wine, and the Wine drunk, and the Leavs externally applied is a remedy against the sting of Scorpions, and the bitings of mad Dogs, and commendeth the Decoction therof for Women to bath or sit in to procure their Courses; it is good to wash aching Teeth therwith and profitable for those that have the bloody Flux. The Leaves also with a little Nitre taken in Drink, are good against a Surfet of Mushromes, helps the griping pains of the Belly and being made into an Electuary is good for them that cannot fetch their breath:” [deep breathing, preferably over a commode, lid upstanding, of course]

• N Robert Gertz on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 02:23pm

  “…the trouble of going from one house to another to Sir W. Pen

• N Martha Rosen on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 04:02pm

  More 17th century sedatives
  Valerian, still available for purchase on herbal medicine websites, has been used since at least the middle ages as a sedative.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_plant

• N dirk on Sun 24 Jul 2005, 09:26pm

  Valerian

  re - Martha Rosen

  I thought about that too, but strangely enough Culpeper mentions valerian as a remedy for: “Disury, Strangury, Stitch, terms provokes, breast, short wind, Cough, Flegm, Pestilence, Wind, Headach, Eyes, Pin and Web, Wounds, Splinters, thorns” - but says nothing about its tranquilizing qualities.

• N Australian Susan on Mon 25 Jul 2005, 02:20am

  Parish Feast
  Annual event - probably in abeyance during the 1650s. Notorious for drunken indulgence! Nowadays usually much more decorous affair linked with a Church’s Patronal festival (eg our Church is dedicated to the Holy Spirit so our feast day is Pentecost).
  For the folkloric history see http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/summer.html