"From many a berry and from sweet kernels pressed,
She tempered dulcet creams."
And Aratus, whom St. Paul quotes concerning the gods, calls the berries
in aid in describing the roseate cheek of health:--
"Fair flesh like snow with vermilion mixed,"
a line that took Goethe's fancy when composing his Theory of Colors.
Randolph, too, Ben Jonson's young friend, rides out of London with
"worthy Stafford" in quest of some,--
"Come, spur away,
I have no patience for a longer stay;
But I must go down
And leave the changeable air of this great town.
I will the country see,
Where old simplicity,
Though hid in gray,
Doth look more gay
Than foppery in plush and scarlet clad;
Farewell ye city wits that are
Almost at city war,--
'Tis time that I grew wise when all the world is mad.
"Here from the tree
We'll cherries pluck, and pick the strawberry;
And every day
Go see the wholesome girls make hay,
Whose brown hath lovelier grace
Than any painted face
That I do know
Hyde Park can show.
"Then full, we'll seek a shade,
And hear what music's made;
How Philomel
Her tale doth tell,
And how the other birds do fill the choir,
The thrush and blackbird lend their throats,
Warbling melodious notes,
We will all sports enjoy that others do desire."
The strawberry, it appears, was not restored to gardens till within a
century or two back. Evelyn mentions "planting them out of the woods."
I do not find it mentioned as a cultivated plant in the Greek or Roman
rural authors. Phillips, in his History of Fruits, gives this pleasant
account of the origin of its name. That of "an ancient practice of
children threading the wild berries upon straws of grass," somewhat as
rude country boys thread birds' egg-shells like beads, as ornaments for
their mirrors. He says that this is still a custom in parts of England
where they abound, and that so many "straws of berries" are sold for
a penny,--a more picturesque style of marketing than in pottles, or
boxes. Evelyn mentions the kinds common in his time: Common Wood,
English, American, or Virginia, Polona, White, Ivy Red, the Green, and
Scarlet.
Culpepper, in his British Herbal, says: "This plant is so well known
that it needs no description. It grows in woods and is planted in
gardens. It flowers in May; the fruit ripens soon after. Venus owns
the herb. The fruit, when green, is cool and dry; but when ripe, cool
and moist." He gives a list of its medical virtues, among which, he
says, "the water of the berries, carefully distilled, is a remedy and
cordial in the panting and beating of the heart." It were almost worth
having this trouble to be cured by his strawberry cordials.
He describes the raspberry, also called thimbleberry, and ascribes to
it similar medical virtues.
Of bilberries, he says there are two sorts common in England,--the
black and red. The red bilberry he calls "whortleberry," and says:
"The black groweth in forests, on the heath, and such like barren
places. The red grows in the north parts of this land, as Lancashire,
Yorkshire, etc., flowers in March and April, the fruit ripening in July
and August." "Both are under the dominion of Jupiter," and, if we may
believe him, are very virtuous, it being "a pity they are used no more
in physic than they are." In August we gather as good in