Nicholas Culpeper’s Spitalfields
CLICK HERE TO BOOK FOR MY SPITALFIELDS TOUR THIS SATURDAY 19th JULY
Ragwort in Hanbury St
(The concoction of the herb is good to wash the mouth, and also against the quinsy and the king’s evil)
Taking the opportunity to view the plaque upon the hairdresser at the corner of Puma Court and Commercial St, commemorating where Nicholas Culpeper lived and wrote The English Herbal, the celebrated seventeenth century Herbalist returned to his old neighbourhood for a visit and I was designated to be his guide.
Naturally, he was a little disoriented by the changes that time has wrought to Red Lion Fields where he once cultivated herbs and gathered wild plants for his remedies. Disinterested in new developments, instead he implored me to show him what wild plants were left and thus we set out together upon a strange quest, seeking weeds that have survived the urbanisation. You might say we were searching for the fields in Spitalfields since these were plants that were here before everything else.
Let me admit, I did feel a responsibility not to disappoint the old man, as we searched the barren streets around his former garden. But I discovered he was more astonished that anything at all had survived and thus I photographed the hardy specimens we found as a record, published below with Culpeper’s own annotations.
Honeysuckle in Buxton St (I know of no better cure for asthma than this, besides it takes away the evil of the spleen, provokes urine, procures speedy delivery of women in travail, helps cramps, convulsions and palsies and whatsoever griefs come of cold or stopping.)
Dandelion in Fournier St (Vulgarly called Piss-a-beds, very effective for obstructions of the liver, gall and spleen, powerful cleans imposthumes. Effectual to drink in pestilential fevers and to wash the sores. The juice is good to be applied to freckles, pimples and spots.)
Campion in Bishop’s Sq (Purges the body of choleric humours and helps those that are stung by Scorpions and other venomous beasts and may be as effectual for the plague.)
Pellitory of the Wall in Hanbury St (For an old or dry cough, the shortness of breath, and wheezing in the throat. Wonderfully helps stoppings of the urine.)
Herb Robert in Folgate St (Commended not only against the stone, but to stay blood, where or howsoever flowing, and it speedily heals all green wounds and is effectual in old ulcers in the privy parts.)
Sow Thistle in Princelet St (Stops fluxes, bleeding, takes away cold swellings and eases the pains of the teeth)
Groundsel off Brick Lane (Represses the heat caused by motions of the internal parts in purges and vomits, expels gravel in the veins or kidneys, helps also against the sciatica, griping of the belly, the colic, defects of the liver and provokes women’s courses.)
Ferns and Campanula and in Elder St (Ferns eaten purge the body of choleric and waterish humours that trouble the stomach. The smoke thereof drives away serpents, gnats and other noisome creatures which in fenny countries do trouble and molest people lying their beds.)
Sow Thistle and Herb Robert in Elder St
Yellow Wood Sorrel and Sow Thistle in Puma Court (The roots of Sorrel are held to be profitable against the jaundice.)
Comfrey in Code St (Helps those that spit blood or make a bloody urine, being outwardly applied is specially good for ruptures and broken bones, and to be applied to women’s breasts that grow sore by the abundance of milk coming into them.)
Sow Thistle in Fournier St
Field Poppy in Allen Gardens (A syrup is given with very good effect to those that have the pleurisy and is effectual in hot agues, frenzies and other inflammations either inward or outward.)
Fleabane at Victoria Cottages (Very good to heal the nipples and sore breasts of women.)
Sage and Wild Strawberries in Commercial St (The juice of Sage drank hath been of good use at time of plagues and it is commended against the stitch and pains coming of wind. Strawberries are excellent to cool the liver, the blood and the spleen, or an hot choleric stomach, to refresh and comfort the fainting spirits and quench thirst.)
Hairy Bittercress in Fournier St (Powerful against the scurvy and to cleanse the blood and humours, very good for those that are dull or drowsy.)
Oxe Eye Daisies in Allen Gardens (The leaves bruised and applied reduce swellings, and a decoction thereof, with wall-wort and agrimony, and places fomented or bathed therewith warm, giveth great ease in palsy, sciatica or gout. An ointment made thereof heals all wounds that have inflammation about them.)
Herb Robert in Fournier St
Camomile in Commercial St (Profitable for all sorts of agues, melancholy and inflammation of the bowels, takes away weariness, eases pains, comforts the sinews, and mollifies all swellings.)
Unidentified herb in Commercial St
Buddleia in Toynbee St (Aids in the treatment of gonorrhea, hepatitis and hernia by reducing the fragility of skin and small intestine’s blood vessel.)
Hedge Mustard in Fleur de Lys St (Good for all diseases of the chest and lungs, hoarseness of voice, and for all other coughs, wheezing and shortness of breath.)
Buttercup at Spitalfields City Farm (A tincture with spirit of wine will cure shingles very expeditiously, both the outbreak of small watery pimples clustered together at the side, and the accompanying sharp pains between the ribs. Also this tincture will promptly relieve neuralgic side ache, and pleurisy which is of a passive sort.)
You may like to read about
An interesting treatise .
Those who may not know there is a herbalist attached to the University near Archway station I believe various concoctions can be bought .
Not cheap but for those interested.
Very interesting weed identification. We’ve had quite a few of those in our garden!
What a beautiful reportage, I loved it. No wonder Mr. Culpeper was slightly taken aback by the changes. I think my favorite one is the buddleia growing on the roof. Thank you for these wonderful photographs.
A veritable cornucopia. Mind you I’d be a little wary of the stuff growing at ground level. Dogs doncha know…
A veritable treasure trail of wild herbs & flora with their attributed medicinal properties. Imagine that the origins of most medications, stemming from the commons & fields of old, still thriving healthily to this day!
Brilliant!! thank you!!
Interest around every corner….
Although herbariums (spelling?) and such documents are of great interest to me — I became enthralled with your premise of taking a long-ago historic figure on a present-day “walk about”.
My imagination fired on all cylinders, thinking of this intriguing possibility. Given the chance,
who would I select for such an encounter? Without delay, I came up with the idea that I would (humbly) like to hire a carriage and share it with American humorist, Mark Twain. Within the tight confines of the wobbly conveyance, we would chortle, speculate, comment on the passing scene, inhale clouds of smoke from his cigar, and observe the dubious improvements along Fifth Avenue.
Eventually, we would arrive at the New York Public Library, where we would alight from the buggy, and prance up the steps, past the two redoubtable LIONS, and duck inside. The day would be spent in the Main Reading Room (which was conveniently closed to the general public, for our private use) and he would regale me with his unvarnished opinions of books, great and small. I would search the stacks, and find a copy of one of his novels (perhaps “The Gilded Age”) and slide the book to him, as he’d pen his autograph on the title page.
Luckily, the carriage still remained on the Avenue, awaiting our return. (absent any parking tickets………amazing!) We would complete the day by clip-clopping UP Fifth Avenue (against traffic) until we reached The Algonquin Hotel, where we would sit in high-back leather armchairs and enjoy double-bourbons (“waiter, keep ’em coming”) as I explained the whole Round Table phenomenon. Excelsior!
Very informative post. It is wonderful to know that these plants have survived in such an urban setting.