Gerard’s Herbal at TobyFest, Powderham Castle



Hilda Leyel, founder of the Herb Society

You may recently have read our post about John Gerard’s Herbal.  We were really fortunate to have an original copy in our care to display at the Toby Buckland Garden Festival in early May.  Dating from 1636, it belongs to the Herb Society  and is shortly to be loaned to the Garden Museum in London for their new displays.  It came to the Society through the library of Hilda Leyel, its founder. 

Toby Buckland, President of the Herb Society

Toby Buckland is the new president of the Herb Society and he was keen to show the Herbal and to talk about some of the fascinating facts Gerard records.  Gerard not only spoke about the herbs native to this country, but also plants collected abroad.  He refers to the aubergine as about the size of a goose egg, in fact the original aubergines were smaller than today’s and white.  This is said to be where we get the alternative name of ‘eggplant’ from.  Gerard stated that tomatoes were eaten in Spain and Italy, but that they were in fact bad for you and ‘rank and stinking’.  This may be because they were originally linked to the mandrake from the nightshade family and therefore thought to be poisonous.

Gerard's Herbal

We had the Herbal open on the page about pennyroyal, where we also had both the dried and fresh plant.  Pennyroyal is from the mint family and would have been put between the pages of a book to stop insects from eating the ink.  The fresh herb today can be used for rubbing around areas where you have an ant problem to deter the little blighters from entering.  On a more sinister note, pennyroyal, also known as pudding grass, was long known as an herb which would bring about abortions.

The Herb Society stand interpreted the different uses of herbs as described in Gerard; for medicine, strewing, cooking and for dyes.  There were also a range of Tudor medical instruments to illustrate Gerard’s role as Master of the Barber Surgeons.  There was a display and stand about the Herb Society as we were encouraging people to find out more and join up.  Our stand was in the setting of the library of Powderham Castle which Tom loved as there were a couple of secret doors, just like in Scooby-Doo!  I also got to chat about this fantastic Herbal with Lord Courtenay, the son of the 18th Earl of Devon, surrounded by his family's library! 

The next event we are working on for the Herb Society is our stand at the Tatton Flower Show 22-26 July 2015 on the theme of ‘Thyme for Tea’ focused on herbal infusions.  Hope to see you there!!

The General Historie of Plants

It's getting to that time of year when our work with herbs starts up again, and some of our forthcoming work will be celebrating the work of a Cheshire-born herbalist whose writings haven't been out of print in over four centuries.

 

John Gerard was born in Nantwich, Cheshire in 1545. He went to school in nearby Willaston, and some of his exploits with his friends were later recalled when he was writing about superstitions regarding yews, one of which was that sleeping in the shadow would kill you; "when I was yong and went to school, divers of my school fellows and likewise myself did eat our fills of the berries of this tree and hath not only slept under the shadow thereof, but among the branches also, without hurt at all, and that not one time, but many times".  All parts of the yew are poisonous, excepting the flesh of the berries but including the seeds, so eating the berries is a particularly dangerous thing to do! 

 

Gerard was apprenticed to a barber surgeon aged 17 and at some point thereafter he seems to have spent time as a ship's surgeon travelling in the North Sea and Baltic.  He later settled in London, living in Holborn where he superintended gardens belonging to William Cecil, Lord Burghley in the Strand and also at Theobalds in Hertfordshire for 20 years.

 

In 1596 he published his first book; a work of 24 pages listing plants he had cultivated in his own garden. This was the first complete catalogue of any one garden ever published. In 1597 Gerard published, ‘The Herbal, or General Historie of Plants’. He had a good practical knowledge of plants, and due to his powerful connections at court and elsewhere, he was able to add many new and previously unseen plants to his gardens.  Gerard combined his botanical observations with folklore about the plants and comments on the best time to harvest and use them.  Woodcuts of the herbs were commissioned to assist gardeners and apothecaries. 

 

Queen Elizabeth I was presented with a copy of the Herbal. Gerard gave Elizabeth a tour of the kitchen garden at Theobalds where he dug up a ginger root for her to have at supper.

In 1606 James I visited Theobalds and persuaded Robert Cecil, William’s son to exchange it for Hatfield House. Gerard was appointed royal gardener and herbalist and the new Queen Anne of Denmark gave him an additional garden next to Somerset House where he grew plants for the palaces.

In 1608 Gerard was elected as Master of the Barber Surgeons’ Company. Gerard died in February 1611-12 and is buried in St Andrew’s Church, Holborn. Gerard's Herbal remained a standard reference work for apothecaries and medical students for a couple of centuries.  Gerard's work continues to inspire gardens today, including two projects in his native Cheshire.

 

At the start of May, we will be taking an early edition of Gerard's Herbal to a major garden festival at Powderham Castle in Devon.  We're representing the Herb Society, of which Sue is a committee member, and exploring the world of Tudor herbalism in a living history display.  Soon after, the copy of the Herbal will be taken to the Garden Museum in London to be put on show there.