rman Conquest the old Anglo-Saxon lore
naturally fell into disrepute, although the Normans were inferior to
the Saxons in their knowledge of herbs. The learned books of the
conquerors were written exclusively in Latin, and it is sad to think
of the number of beautiful Saxon books which must have been destroyed,
for when the Saxons were turned out of their own monasteries the
Normans who supplanted them probably regarded books written in a
language they did not understand as mere rubbish. Much of the old
Saxon herb lore is to be found in the leech books of the Middle Ages,
but, with one notable exception, no important original treatise on
herbs by an English writer has come down to us from that period. The
vast majority of the herbal MSS. are merely transcriptions of Macer's
herbal, a mediaeval Latin poem on the virtues of seventy-seven plants,
which is believed to have been written in the tenth century. The
popularity of this poem is shown by the number of MSS. still extant.
It was translated into English as early as the twelfth century with
the addition of "A fewe herbes wyche Macer tretyth not."[38] In 1373
it was translated by John Lelamoure, a schoolmaster of Hertford. On
folio 55 of the MS. of this translation is the inscription, "God
gracious of grauntis havythe yyeue and ygrauted vertuys in woodys
stonys and herbes of the whiche erbis Macer the philosofure made a
boke in Latyne the whiche boke Johannes Lelamoure scolemaistre of
Herforde est, they he unworthy was in the yere of oure Lorde a. m.
ccc. lxxiij tournyd in to Ynglis." Macer's herbal is also the basis of
a treatise in rhyme of which there are several copies in England and
one in the Royal Library at Stockholm. This treatise, which deals with
twenty-four herbs, begins thus quaintly--

"Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and by
Als I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng toke
Of a gret ladys preste of gret name she barest."

The poem begins with a description of betony, powerful against "wykked
sperytis," and then treats, amongst other herbs, of the virtues of
centaury, marigold, celandine, pimpernel, motherwort, vervain,
periwinkle, rose, lily, henbane, agrimony, sage, rue, fennel and
violet. It is pleasant to find the belief that only to look on
marigolds will draw evil humours out of the head and strengthen the
eyesight.

"Golde [marigold] is bitter in savour
Fayr and [gh]elw [yellow] is his flowur
Ye golde flour is good to s