London (England) -- History; London (England) -- Social life and customs
If you are sincere in this Plea; if you do not _talk_ of your
Health, while the real Objection is your Inclination, make a fair
Trial thus, 1. Take half a Pint of Milk every Morning, with a little
Bread, not boiled, but warmed only; (a Man in tolerable Health might
double the Quantity.) 2. If this is too heavy, add as much Water,
and boil it together with a Spoonful of Oatmeal. 3. If this agrees
not, try half a Pint, or a little more, of Water-gruel, neither
thick nor thin; not sweetened (for that may be apt to make you sick)
but with a very little Butter, Salt, and Bread. 4. If this
disagrees, try Sage, green Balm, Mint, or Pennyroyal Tea, infusing
only so much of the Herb as just to change the Colour of the Water.
5. Try two or three of these mixed, in various Proportions. 6. Try
ten or twelve other _English_ Herbs. 7. Try _Foltron_, a Mixture of
Herbs to be had at many Grocers, far healthier as well as cheaper
than Tea. 8. Try Coco. If after having tried each of these, for a
Week or ten Days, you find none of them well agree with your
Constitution, then use (weak Green) Tea again: But at the same Time
know, That your having used it so long has brought you near the
Chambers of Death.
The still-room was of the greatest importance to the housewife. She no
longer distilled strong waters for cordials, but she made her preserves
and her pickles. She made rose-water, and lavender-water, and
hysterical-water; Plague-water, angelica-water, and all kinds of
wonderful waters, whose names and virtues are now quite forgotten. The
horror of the Plague, which survived to a hundred years ago, is shown by
the extraordinary complications of the Plague-mixture. We are to take a
pound each of twenty roots, sixteen flowers, nineteen seeds; we are to
take also an ounce each of nutmeg, cloves, and mace; we are to shred the
flowers, bruise the berries, and pound the roots and spices; to these we
must add a peck of green walnuts; after mixing all together they must be
steeped in wine lees; after a week they must be distilled.
She also made cherry-brandy, currant-gin, damson-brandy, and certain
medicinal wines or confections, of which the following is a specimen. It
is called Gascony wine. It comforts the vital parts, cures dropsy, and
keeps the old alive. Yet we have neglected so sovereign a medicine!
"Take ginger, galingale, cinnamon, nutmeg, grains of paradise, cloves
bruised, fennel seed, caraway seeds, origanum, one ounce each. Next,
take sage, wild marjorum, pennyroyal, mint, red roses, thyme, pellitory,
rosemary, wild thyme, camomile, lavender, one handful of each. Beat the
spices small, bruise the herbs, put all into a limbeck with wine for
twelve hours; then distil."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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