rt, outwardly for the sinews and
joynts; for civill uses, as all do know, at weddings, funerals, etc., to
bestow among friends; and the physicall are so many that you might as
well be tyred in the reading as I in the writing, if I should set down
all that might be said of it.'

One of the 'physicall' uses was in stirring up the tankard of ale or
sack, and at weddings a sprig was usually dipped in the loving-cup to
give it fragrance as well as luck.

The virtues of the plant are celebrated in a curious wedding sermon
quoted by Hone:

'The rosemary is for married men, the which by name, nature, and
continued use, man challengeth as properly belonging to himself. It
overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden boasting man's rule; it
helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinal for
the head. Another property is, it affects the heart. Let this
ros-marinus, this flower of man, ensign of your wisdom, love, and
loyalty, be carried not only in your hands but in your heads and
hearts.'

One does not easily reconcile this laudation with the popular
superstition that wherever the rosemary flourished there should the
woman be the ruling power. And to this superstition, be it noted, has
been ascribed the disfavour into which the plant has fallen among
gardeners since Shakespeare's time.

The medical properties may have been over-rated by old Parkinson, but
some are recognised even to this day. Thus rosemary is used as an
infusion to cure headaches, and is believed to be an extensive
ingredient in hair-restorers. It is also one of the ingredients in the
manufacture of Eau-de-Cologne, and has many other uses in the form of
oil of rosemary. It is said that bees which feed on rosemary blossoms
produce a very delicately-flavoured honey. Perfumers are greatly
indebted to it. According to De Gubernatis, the flowers of the plant are
proof against rheumatism, nervous indisposition, general debility,
weakness of sight, melancholy, weak circulation, and cramp. Almost as
comprehensive a cure as some of our modern universal specifics!

The medicinal properties of rosemary have been held by some to account
for its funeral uses. At all events, an ingenious writer of the
seventeenth century held that the custom of carrying a sprig at a
funeral had its rise from a notion of an 'alexipharmick' or preservative
virtue in the herb which would protect the wearer from 'pestilential
distempers,' and be a powerful defence 'against