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ON GARDEN HERBS. I.

INTRODUCTION.

Herbs too she knew, and well of each could speak,
That in her garden sipped the silvery dew.
Where no vain flower disclosed a gaudy streak;
But Herbs for use, and physic, not a few.

Of grey renown, within those borders grew;

The tufted Basil, pun-provoking Thyme,
Fresh Balm, and Marigold of cheerful hue,
The lowly Gill, that never dares to climb;

And more I fain would sing, disdaining here to rhyme.
SHENSTONE'S Schoolmistress.

THE subject of the present and some following papers,
may appear a very humble one wherewith to enter-
tain the readers of the Saturday Magazine. The beau
ties of the flower-garden or conservatory, the luxuries
obtained from the hot-house, or the substantial pro-
ducts of a well-stocked orchard, might have suggested
pleasing considerations enough; but a few insignifi-
cant herbs,-what can be said of them? they may be
attractive to a swarm of bees, that find themselves
richly regaled amidst their fragrant blossoms; and
we know that a herbary is a convenient and necessary
appendage to our kitchen gardens, but beyond this,
what interest can there be in garden herbs, and who

would take the trouble to bestow attention on them? It is possible that this may be the feeling of a few of our readers, but we are disposed to think that the number of persons is but few, who can pass by in disregard the humble, but useful, tribe of vegetables, of which we are about to speak.

In former days, a much greater share of attention was bestowed on herbs, and a much higher degree of virtue ascribed to them, than it is now the custom to pay or ascribe; their effects in the cure of various diseases, in cheering the spirits, and assuaging all sorts of mental as well as bodily anguish, are stated by the old writers, in terms that appear exaggerated and ridiculous. But if the reverence of the old herb

alist was superstitious and absurd, the contempt of the modern student for these useful plants is not very wise. The disparagement of what is common, and the over-estimation of all that is rare and difficult to be attained, are weaknesses to which even the most clever and intellectual persons are occasionally liable. Our object, then, in the following papers, will be, to show that Garden Herbs, when considered with reference to their botanical character; their virtues and medicinal qualities, real or reputed; the uses to which they were applied in former times; the employment of them in various ways amongst ourselves; together with the quaint sayings of herbalists, and the historical and poetical associations connected with them; are by no means devoid of interest, or undeserving our attention.

The example of the ancients may likewise teach us to pay some regard to herbs. King Solomon, with all his wisdom, did not consider them beneath his notice; it is declared of him, that "he spake of trees, from the cedar that is upon Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." The ancient Syrians are said to have had a great predilection for gardening, and for the rearing of pot-herbs. Among the Greeks and Romans, medicinal herb-gardens were highly estimated, and frequently mentioned by their celebrated writers. The Chinese make extensive use

of them; and having no schools for the study of physic, they consider it a duty to teach the uses of simples and roots to their families and domestics. The native Americans also have been observed to carry about with them such roots and herbs as they have found to possess beneficial properties.

A considerable degree of superstition appears to have been mixed up with the knowledge of herbs, in

all countries where they have been cultivated. The
following lines of Virgil will show that a belief in the
magical influence of certain plants was prevalent
among the Romans :-

These poisonous plants, for magic use designed,
(The noblest and the best of all the baneful kind,)
Öld Mæris brought me from the Pontic strand,
And culled the mischief of a bounteous land.
Smeared with these powerful juices, on the plain
He howls, a wolf among the hungry train:
And oft the mighty necromancer boasts
With these, to call from tombs the stalking ghosts,
And from the roots to tear the standing corn,
Which, whirled aloft, to distant fields is borne :
Such is the power of spells.-

of herbs were for a long time associated together, and
In our own country witchcraft and the knowledge
advantage was taken of this circumstance by Shak-
speare, in his description of incantations, where he
fails not to introduce "root of hemlock," "slips of
yew," &c. In the reign of Henry the Eighth, the
cultivation of medicinal herbs began to occupy the
attention of surgeons and apothecaries; private herb-
gardens were planted, and Gerard, called the "Father
of English Herbalists," possessed the principal one.

George Herbert, whose writings are full of originality By referring to the works of that excellent man, and beauty, we find the knowledge of herbs to have been considered indispensably requisite to a country clergyman. Herbert wrote his Priest to the Temple about the year 1630, and in the admirable rules which he has laid down for the regulation of the pastor's conduct, he especially enforces the duty of attending his flock in sickness; and being himself, as far as it is safe and desirable, their physician. He recommends the study of anatomy and physic, and keeping a herbal at hand. He says that the reading of such subjects and the knowing of herbs

recreation to more divine studies, as also by way of illustraMay be done at such times as they may be a help and a tion, even as our Saviour made plants and seeds to teach the people; for he was the true householder, who bringeth out of his treasure things new and old; the old things of philosophy, and the new of grace; and maketh the one serve the other. In the knowledge of simples, wherein the manifold wisdom of God is wonderfully to be seen, one thing would be carefully observed; which is, to know what herbs may be used instead of drugs of the same nature, and to make the garden the shop; for home-bred medicines are both more easy for the parson's purse, and more familiar for all men's bodies. So where the apothecary useth rhubarb or bolearmena, the parson useth damask or white roses, plantain, shepherd's-purse, and knot grass, with better sucAs for spices, he doth not only prefer home-bred things before them, but condemns them for vanities, and so shuts them out of his family, esteeming that there is no spice comparable, for herbs, to rosemary, thyme, savoury, and mints; and for seeds, to fennel and caraway seeds. Accordingly, for salves, his wife seeks not the city, but prefers her garden and fields before all outlandish gums. And melilot, and St. John's-wort, made into a salve, and elder, surely hyssop, valerian, mercury, adder's tongue, yerrow, camomile, mallows, comphrey, and smallage, made into a poultice, have done great and rare cures.'

cess.

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den in England previous to the planting of one. at
We do not find any mention of a public herb-gar-
illustrious physicke-garden, beautifully walled and gated;"
Oxford, called by a writer of that day a spacious,
years later the Chelsea gardens were in a flourishing
which took place about the year 1640. Forty-five
state, and artificial heat was used in green-houses,
which seems, by Evelyn's manner of speaking of it to
have been then a new introduction.
his Diary is as follows:-
The notice in

--

I went to see Mr. Wats, keeper of the Apothecaries' Garinnumerable rarities of that sort, particularly, besides rare den of Simples at Chelsea, where there is a collection of

annuals, the tree bearing Jesuits' bark, which has done such wonders in quartan agues. What was very ingenious, was the subterranean heate, conveyed by a stove under the conservatory, all vaulted with brick, so as he has the doores and windowes open in the hardest frost, secluding only the

snow.

Both at the gardens of Chelsea and Kew, there are at present very superb collections of plants, and the advance in horticultural knowledge has been exceedingly rapid throughout our country. The simple herbs which find a place alike in splendid botanical gardens, and in the little plat of ground allotted to the humble cottager, and which we intend separately to describe, have many of them received most appropriate and significant names in times past, by which they are still recognised among the lower class of people. The following amusing extract from the Journal of a Naturalist, will give a pretty good notion of the old-fashioned plan of naming herbs and plants:

In ages of simplicity, when every man was the usual dispenser of good or bad, benefit or injury, to his own household or his cattle,-ere the veterinary art was known, or the drugs of other regions introduced,-necessity looked up to the products of its own clime, and the real or fantastical virtues of them were called to the trial, and manifests the reasonableness of bestowing upon plants and herbs such names as might immediately indicate their several uses, or fitness for application; when distinctive characters, had they been given, would have been little attended to; and hence the numbers found favourable to the cure of particular complaints, the ailments of domestic creatures, or deemed injurious to them. Modern science may wrap up the meaning of its epithets in Greek or Latin terms; but in very many cases they are the mere translation of these despised "old vulgar names." What pleasure it must have afforded the poor sufferer in body or in limb-what confidence he must have felt of relief, when he knew that the good neighbour who came to bathe his wounds, or assuage his inward torments, brought with him such things as "all-heal, bruise-wort, gout-weed, fever-few," (fugio,) and twenty other such com fortable mitigators of his afflictions; why their very names would almost charm away the sense of pain! The modern recipe contains no such terms of comfortable assurance: its meanings are all dark to the sufferer; its influence unknown. And then the good herbalists of old professed to have plants which were "all-good;" they could assuage anger by their "loose-strife;" they had "honesty, truc-love, and heart's-ease." The cayennes, the soys, the ketchups, and extra-tropical condiments of these days, were not required, when the next thicket would produce "poor man's pepper, sauce-alone, and hedge-mustard;" and the woods and wilds around, when they yielded such delicate viands fat-hen, lambs-quarters, way-bread, butter and eggs, with codlins and cream," afforded no despicable bill of fare. No one ever yet thought of accusing our old simplers of avarice, or love of lucre, yet their "thrift" is always to be seen: we have their humble" penny-wort, herb-two-pence, moneywort, silver-weed, and gold." We may smile, perhaps, at the cognomens or commemorations of friendship or worth, recorded by the old simplers,-at the herbs "Bennet, Robert, Christopher, Gerard, or Basil;" but do the names so bestowed by modern science read better, or sound better? it has "Lightfootia, Lapeyrousia, Hedwigia, Schkuhria, Scheuchzeria; and surely we may admit, in common benevolence, such partialities as "Good King Henry, Sweet William, Sweet Marjory, Sweet Cicely, Lettuce, Mary-gold, and Rose." There are epithets however so very extraordinary that we must consider them as mere perversions, or at least incapable of explanation at this period. The terms of modern science waver daily; names undergo an annual change, fade with the leaf, and give place to others; but the ancient terms, which some may ridicule, have remained for centuries, and will yet remain till nature is swallowed up by art. No; let our ancient herbalists, "a grave and whiskered race," retain the honours due to their labours, which were more needful and important ones at those periods: by them were many casualties and sufferings of man and beast relieved; and by aid of perseverance, better constitutions to act upon, and faith to operate, than we possess, they probably effected cures, which we moderns should fail to accomplish if attempted,

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ON WAX FIGURES. AMONG the substances which have been employed as materials for forming imitations of animals, flowers, &c., not the least pleasing, in the effects which it produces, is wax. There are at the present day, and have been uninterruptedly for many centuries, persons who devote their attention to imitation in wax, such as we have alluded to. We will say a few words respecting the nature of wax, before we describe the mode of casting figures, &c.

Wax is both an animal and vegetable substance; or rather, the purpose to which bees apply it in the formation of their hives, and the supply which we obtain of it through the medium of bees, lead us to regard it almost as an animal substance. But it will be more correct to call it a vegetable product, since it enters into the composition of the pollen of flowers, covers the envelope of the plum, and of other fruits, especially of the berry of the Myrica cerifera, and in many instances forms a kind of varnish on the surface of leaves. Wax is an unctuous-feeling substance, partaking of the nature of a fixed oil; it is distinguished from fat and resinous bodies by not readily forming soaps when mixed with alkaline solutions.

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As wax possesses both colour and odour in its natural state, means are sought for depriving it of those properties without injuring the peculiar consistence of the wax. This is effected by a process of bleaching in the open air, or sometimes in chlorine To bleach wax, it is gently melted in a caldron, which has a pipe in the bottom through which the melted wax can flow off. From the caldron it passes into a large wooden cylinder, which is kept in constant rotation, and which is also wetted with water: the consequence is that the wax cools in thin layers round the inside of the cylinder, without adhering to it. The thin layers of wax are then taken out, and exposed on frames covered with linen cloth, to the united action of sun, air, and dew. In a few days it will change its colour, and by repeating the same process two or three times, the wax finally becomes entirely white; it is then cast into cakes for use.

This, then, being the substance in question, we find that such a substance was used at a very early period for the preparation of imitative articles. The Greeks employed wax for taking impressions of seals. There was also a separate class of artists called puppet-makers by the Greeks, and sigillarii by the Romans, who worked principally in wax. The bedrooms of the Greeks were often adorned with wax

figures of boys; but the subjects most frequently represented were branches, fruit, flowers, wreaths, and other objects of the vegetable kingdom. It was customary, at the feast in honour of Adonis, to construct gardens, with ornamental flower baskets, &c.; and as this feast occurred too early in the year to admit of real fruit, flowers, &c., being used, artificial ones, made of wax, were used instead. It is said that Heliogabalus set dishes of wax before his guests, in order to tantalize them with representations of all the luxuries in which he revelled.

In more modern times wax figures have been principally employed in illustration of anatomical details. In the palace at Florence are imitations of all parts of the human body, in coloured wax, for the study of anatomy: more than thirty rooms are filled with these wax preparations, as well as with others respecting vegetable substances. It is said the first idea of forming figures of wax was conceived by Nones, of Genoa, an hospital physician, in the seventeenth century. He was about to preserve

a human body by embalming it; but not being able entirely to prevent putrefaction, he conceived the idea of having the body imitated, as correctly as possible, in wax.

The Abbate Zumbo, a Sicilian, who understood nothing of anatomy, but was skilled in working in wax, imitated the head so perfectly, under the direction of Nones, in coloured wax, that many who saw it mistook it for the real head. Zumbo secretly made another copy, which he took to France, and gave himself out to be the inventor of the art. After the departure of Zumbo, Nones had the whole body imitated in wax by a Frenchman named Delacroix. The next instance of the kind, which we find recorded, occurred in the year 1721, when La Courege exhibited similar figures in Hamburgh; and in 1737 others were publicly sold in London. About the same period very beautiful figures in wax were made by three Italian artists, Ercole Lelli, Giovanni Manzolini, and Anna Manzolini, his wife; many fine specimens by these persons are, or were, preserved at Bologna, Paris, Turin, and St. Petersburgh. At a later period other artists in this peculiar line appeared in Italy, which seems as if it had been destined for the cradle of artists; among these were Calza, Fillippo, Balugani, Ferrini, and Fontana. The latter carried the art to a high degree of excellence in Florence. He received so many orders, that he employed a large company of anatomists, model-cutters, wax-moulders, and painters; he generally confined his models to representations of the internal parts of the human body.

At Wittenberg, Vogt was accustomed to use, in his lectures, wax preparations in imitation of the fine vessels of the body. In France, Pinson and Laumonier have distinguished themselves in this branch of art. In England, most of our readers are acquainted with exhibitions of wax-work, prepared more for the gratification of public curiosity, than for the advancement or illustration of any particular branch of science. Many of these exhibitions, both in former times, and at the present day, have been distinguished for a good deal of cleverness and ingenuity.

We must now say a few words respecting the mode of preparing figures in wax; and these modes are different, according to the nature of the figure to be made. For some purposes a composition is made of four parts wax, three parts white turpentine, and some olive oil or hog's lard, suitably coloured. The bulk of the figure is formed out of this substance, with the hands; the finer parts being made by means of instruments of various forms: it is, in fact, a process of modelling.

In other cases the figure is cast; and we may here allude, by way of illustration, to the mode of casting plaster figures. To make a plaster cast,-of the face, for instance, liquid plaster of Paris is poured on the face; and when it has hardened, it forms a mould, which can be removed from the face, and which in its turn, will serve as a foundation on which liquid plaster of Paris can be poured, in order to produce a cast of the face. A process somewhat similar is observed in preparing waxen casts. The following has been given as a mode of imitating fruit, &c., in wax: bury the fruit half-way in clay; oil its edges, and the extant half of the fruit; then carefully pour on it tempered alabaster, or plaster of Paris, to a considerable thickness. When this has hardened, it makes the half mould, the second half of which may be obtained in the same way. The two parts of the mould being next joined together, a little coloured wax, melted, and brought to a due

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heat, being poured through a hole, made in any con venient part of the mould, and shaken round in every direction, will represent the original fruit.

In making wax models of the human frame, or any of its parts, a somewhat similar plan is observed. A mould is made of plaster of Paris, in several pieces, and these pieces being fastened together, melted wax is poured into the internal cavity; and the mould being then placed in cold water, the wax is soon solidified; and upon taking the mould to pieces, the wax figure can be taken out. It is said of M. Benoist, that "being by profession a painter, he found the secret of forming moulds on the faces of living persons, even the fairest and most delicate, without any danger either to their health or complexion; in which moulds he cast masks of wax; to which, by his colours, and glass eyes imitated from nature, he gave a sort of life; insomuch as, when clothed in proper habits, they bore such a resemblance, that it was difficult to distinguish between the copy and the original."

A composition of wax and other substances is employed for taking impressions of figures cut in stones. It is prepared thus: an ounce of virgin wax, melted slowly in a copper vessel, and a drachm o sugar candy pounded well, half an ounce of burnt soot, and two or three drops of turpentine. The wax is warmed if a cast is to be taken, and the stone, having been a little moistened, is pressed on it. Gem-cutters use this composition.

Sculptors sometimes form their first models of a composition, consisting of sixteen parts wax, two parts Burgundy pitch, or shoemaker's wax, and one part hog's lard: or of ten parts wax, one turpentine, as much shoemaker's wax, and as much hog's lard. This is melted over a slow fire, and afterwards well stirred and strained, so as to expel all the air.

With regard to the effect of large wax figures on the mind, the following remarks of a modern writer are not without their force: "At present wax is used for imitations of anatomical preparations, or of fruits; it also serves the sculptor for his models and studies; also for little portrait figures in basso relievo. The latter can be executed with delicacy and beauty; but wax figures of the size of life, which are often praised for their likeness, overstep the proper limit of the fine arts. They attempt to imitate life too closely, which, in contrast with their ghastly fixedness, has a tendency to make us shudder. In the genuine work of art there is an immortal life in idea, which speaks to our souls without attempting to deceive our senses. The wax figure seems to address the mortal in us; it is a petrified picture of our earthly part. The line at which a work of art should stop, in its approach to nature, is not distinctly marked; but it cannot be overstepped without affecting us disagreeably. Exact imitations, in wax, of vegetable productions, do not produce the same unpleasant emotions as wax images of men and animals, because they have, by nature, a more stationary character."

Do not suffer your mind to brood over the external distinc tions of society. Neither seek nor avoid those who are superior in fortune; meet them on the same ground as you do the rest of your fellow-creatures. There is a dignified medium between cringing for notice, and acting like a cat that puts up her back and spits, when she sees a dog at a distance, though it may have no design of coming near to her.-MRS. CHILD.

LONDON:

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE SIXPENCE,

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SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS AND HIS WORKS.

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noble and sublime led to poverty; whereas the delineation of the beautiful and fair, especially when it had individual reference, led to consideration and opulence. Hence it was that the great masters whom he so fervently admired, did not influence his taste; those rather of the Venetian school, of which he speaks but little, regulated his professional character more than all the others. He admired and recommended one style, therefore, and painted after another. When actually employed in the former style, he is not considered to be remarkably eminent, while in the latter he is allowed to possess unrivalled skill; how this skill, peculiar to himself, was obtained, he has not condescended to leave any explanation.

After his return from Rome he again lived as a professional man in St. Martin's Lane, and engaged in many bickerings and altercations with the other artists of the day, on account of the new style of painting to which he had devoted himself,-a style not merely correct in likeness, but more life-looking, natural, and easy. After painting the Duke of Devonshire and Commodore Keppel with great success, the tide of popularity set in in his favour. His rooms began to be frequented by the rich and great, who were able and willing to pay liberally for good portraits of themselves, and thus Reynolds happily gained the honour of perpetuating the features of the most illustrious persons then living, whether in literature or fashionable life. While the correctness and natural animation of his portraits gratified the would-be heroes and philosophers, angels and goddesses, who flocked to him, and while he thus manufactured portraits, and swept in his largely increasing gains, he would dilate, with lofty commendations, upon Raphael and Angelo, "the grand style," and "the old masters." Like the sign-post by the road-side, he pointed the way, but followed it not himself.

By the time he was thirty years old, it is remarked of him that in force and elegance of expression, and in the natural splendour of his colouring, no one could rival him. Being a close observer of nature, he seized every happy attitude into which negligence or design threw the human frame. On one occasion he observed that one of his sitters, instead of looking the way desired, kept gazing at a beautiful picture by one of the old masters. Reynolds thereupon made this circumstance subservient to his portrait. "I snatched the moment," says he, "and drew him in profile, with as much of that expression of a pleasing melancholy as my capacity enabled me to hit off. When the picture was finished, he liked it, and particularly for that expression, though, I believe, without reflecting on the occasion of it."

Another remarkable trait in the character of Reynolds is his friendship and predilection for Johnson, who was of a nature and behaviour entirely opposed to himself. If, as the old maxim goes, "the like associate with like," or "birds of a feather flock together," this is, for the most part, for their profit's sake; but for their pleasure's sake it will often be found that dissimilar natures are most agreeably consorted.

The charge which Reynolds at first made for a head was five guineas, which price increased with his reputation, until it rose at last to fifty guineas. When a visitor attended for a likeness, he submitted to himi a portfolio of prints and sketches, in order that the sitter might select his position. He received six sitters daily in their turns, and kept regular lists of those who sat and of those who were waiting, until a finished portrait should make way for their admission. As his commissions accumulated, he engaged several assistants who were skilful in the drapery of a pic

ture, the tracing of the likeness and the finish of the picture belonging to himself.

In the year 1761, Reynolds, having acquired considerable wealth, bought a house on the west side of Leicester Square, where, in addition to every convenience and luxury, he set up a splendid gallery for the exhibition of his works. The wheels of his carriage were carved and gilt, and on the panels were painted the four seasons of the year. It was, in fact, a gay and expensive curiosity. It frequently happened that while the footman obtained fees for showing the gallery, the coachman also obtained perquisites by exhibiting the carriage.

The Royal Academy was instituted in the year 1768, by the union of some of the most distinguished painters of the day, and Reynolds was unanimously elected president. The king soon after favoured the new society, and knighted the president. Sir Joshua continued at the head of the society, for about 22 years, and in addition to the service done to the arts by his pencil, the students in the profession have been benefitted by the efforts of his pen. He composed and delivered discourses for the instruction of the pupils in the principles and practice of their art. In addition to the "old masters," the "grand style,” and the routine of instruction in painting, he wisely impresses upon his auditors the paramount necessity of continuous industry, and undeviating earnestness of mind, in reference to the professional object of their lives. To excel in painting, as in anything else, it must be followed up, not merely as an amusement, but as an occupation of labour and perseverance.

During Reynolds's long career of prosperity, parsimony was the general rule of his character. Early necessity had in all probability engrafted in him, as in many others, the habit of thriftiness; and we know that habits, especially of an unfavourable tendency, are not easily removed. He was by nature inclined to benevolence, and he sometimes performed deeds of generosity, which cost him money and gained him no open praise; but these were exceptions in his character. Again, the general order of his domestic arrangements was on a thrifty scale, and his sister, who served as his housekeeper, encouraged thriftiness, or was indifferent to it; but plenty, freedom, and noisy bustle reigned predominant, when, upon occasions, general invitations to dinner were issued to all his admirers among the nobility and gentry, the literary world, and the genteel professions of life.

The really talented and meritorious pupils whom Reynolds had under his charge rapidly acquired skill and proficiency. Northcote painted one of the servants so like nature, that a tame macaw mistook the picture for the original, against whom it had a grudge, and flew to attack the canvass with beak and wing. Reynolds compared the circumstances to the ancient painting of the grapes and the birds. "I see," said he, "that birds and beasts are as good judges of pictures as men." In the celebrated painting of the Ugolino by Reynolds, where a child is represented as expiring, a savage, brought over by Captain Cook, on seeing it, ran forward to support the child.

In the year 1775, Johnson sat to Sir Joshua for his portrait. The picture shows him holding a manuscript near his face, and reading, he being near-sighted. Johnson complained. "It is not friendly to hand down to posterity the imperfections of any man." A looker-on observed, "You will not be known to posterity for your defects, though Sir Joshua should do his worst." This picture afterwards sold for 500 guineas.

There have been many instances of distinguished

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