Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/308

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii 8. vi. SEPT. s, 1912.

they are closed with little slides on which are written the names, as follows :

No. 1. Canel (cinnamon).

No. 2. Blank.

No. 3. Rosmarin (rosemary).

No. *. Schlag (Schlag-kraut, Germander).

No. 5. Buten (rue).

No. 6. Rosen (rose).

No. 7. Lauendel (lavender).

No. S. Citronen (citron).

Numerous references to pomanders may be found in sixteenth- and seventeenth- century books and in ancient inventories of jewels. In a portrait at Hampton Court of a child in sixteenth - century costume is shown a gold pomander pendent from a girdle, and in many other portraits poman- ders are represented.

America appears to be reviving pomanders on silver chains. A writer in the Washington Sunday Star says :

" At present the fad for pomanders worn about the neck upon long chains is in high favour. These are of silver in antique design, and en- crusted with semi-precious stones.

" More elaborate ones of gold, duplicates of those worn by Court ladies during the reign of Louis XV., may be had, but they are expensive. Of rococo design and set with jewels, they are very beautiful.

" Pomanders or perfume balls of the seventeenth century are less expensive. These come in many designs. Gold ones, representing oranges and heart-shaped designs in filigree work, readily allow the scent to escape. Others are snail- shaped or fashioned to represent English walnuts or tiny spheres carved and adorned with jewels."

I have in my possession an old brass receptacle about the size of an ordinary round inkstand, which I think may be a pomander, to stand on a table or desk. It has six segments, and by unscrewing a tiny bird in the centre these are released and fall back on hinges, and disclose little cells for the pomander. It stands on six tiny feet. C. ELKIN MATHEWS.

Chorley Wood.

Information respecting pomanders can be obtained from Fairholt's ' Costume in Eng- land,' part ii., Glossary, and H. Clifford Smith's ' Jewellery.'

There is a recipe for making the filling in Markham's ' English Housewife ' ('A Way to Get Wealth,' part iii. p. 151) :

" To make Pomanders, take two penni -worth of Labdanum, two penny-worth of Storax liquid, one penny-worth of Calamus Aromaticus, as much Balme, halfe a quarter of a pound of fine waxe, of Cloves and Mace two penny-worth, of liquid Aloes three penny-worth, of Nutmegs eight penny-worth, and of Muske foure graines ; beate all these exceedingly together till they come to a perfect substance, then mold it in any fashion you please and dry it."

There is another recipe in ' Lingua,' a play- published in 1607 ('Ancient Drama,' ed. 1810, ii. 223). It differs a little from Mark- ham's, and adds an ounce of purest garden mould cleansed and steeped seven days in rose-water ; this was probably a usual in- gredient, for within the framework of a pomander found in the Thames some years ago was highly aromatic earthy matter. Neither recipe includes the petals of roses or other flowers, and the pomander was so small that it could not have held many. The framework mentioned above, now in the Gem and Gold Ornament Room in the British Museum, measures only two inches in diameter (Archaeological Journal, xi. 79-80); and a pear-shaped Spanish scent- ball, also in the British Museum, in the Wollaston Franks Collection, is much smaller. The pomander was used to counteract the evil effects of noxious and pestilential air, and its medicinal properties were of the first im- portance ; thus, while the filling apparently was made of some of the same components as a pot-pourri, it lacked one that is essential to the pot-pourri, and contained others which the pot-pourri lacks.

The literal meaning of the word "pot- pourri" is a dish of different kinds of meat and vegetables cooked together ; the other meanings attached to it are figurative, and we should expect the literal to precede the figurative. The ' New English Dictionary ' gives a quotation from Bradley's ' Diction- ary,' dated 1725, in which it is defined as a culinary term; but in an extract from a letter written by Lady Luxborough, in 1749, it signifies a potful of all kinds of flowers. It seems quite possible, therefore, that Bailey did not know the latter meaning of the word when he published his dictionary- in 1721. A. ABRAM.

ANDREW LANG (US. vi. 86, 154). Your valued correspondent C. C. B. is perfectly correct in his surmise that Mr. Andrew Lang contributed queries to ' N. & Q.,' and my note would have been more accurate if I had said that Mr. Lang was not a regular or habitual contributor to this journal. As a matter of fact he contributed two queries, the results of which were not encouraging. The first was headed ' Prince Charles and Mile. Luci ' (8 !?, x. 75), and was partially answered by Mr. Lang himself (8 S. x. 165), but a request for further information met with no response.

The second was a request for information egarding Mrs. Eliza Logan, " The Author