The Corgyncombe Herbary

Ahhh, The Delightful and Inviting Fragrances Within...

A rose, thyme, forget-me-not, and lavender tussie-mussie. We call this rose our Rhode Island Rose. It has such a sweet fragrance.


Herbs are hanging to dry at the Corgyncombe Herbary.


On the table is a delightful find found right after Christmas, a wooden implement for crushing dried herbs. It was found at an estate sale near where my early New England ancestors lived. Maybe they used it! After herbs are crushed, they are put in glass jars or packaged and put in the herb and spice cupboard for storage.


The Herbary at Corgyncombe.


The lavender sachet was made by Sarah. Along the border are whole stitch fans and spiders. The center square contains the roseground pattern. The pattern is from "Torchon Lacemaking, A Manual of Techniques" by Elizabeth Wade.


A pink Corgnycombe rose in an old vasculum.


In the photograph above, there is dried lemon verbena and lavender that came from Diane's Garden of Herbs. String is always saved from feed bags for tying herbs up for drying. Diane made the lavender wands in the glass container. On the art stand made by Seth Tudor, is an old copy of "The National Formulary" covered with rose patterned material. There are receipts for elixirs, confections, syrups, and infusions which use many ingredients, such as lily of the valley, iris, rhubarb, lavender, and rose.


The bobbin lace bookmark is like one that Sarah made for Tasha Tudor.


Diane and Sarah made old fashioned labels for the packages of dried herbs. The packages look and smell splendiferous in Corgyncombe's "Emily & Ethlyn's Potions & Perfumery".


According to the "American Dictionary of The English Language" by Noah Webster, 1828, a potion is: a draught; usually, a liquid medicine; a dose.


Tasha Tudor illustrated the book "A Basket of Herbs" written by Mary Mason Campbell.


Helen Allingham's "Happy England".
Helen Allingham was famous for her watercolour paintings of children in charming clothing, thatched cottages, gardens, stone walls, and lovely landscapes.


Nestled amongst the thyme, a basket filled with herbs and flowers gathered for fashioning a fragrant tussie mussie.




In several places Corgi Creek splits off and creates little islands. Diane and her husband took such a pleasant walk along Corgi Creek where the dame's rocket can be seen as far as the eye can see. The only thing one can hear is the babbling of the creek and birds singing. The rocket smells so sweet. It is a joy to the senses.... 'tis our own delightful paradise. Dame's Rocket, Hesperis matronalis, often found at lawn's edge and where field meets wood, are in full bloom at the end of May and beginning of June and are absolutely gorgeous. Their fragrance is lovely, especially at twilight. Dame's Rocket is Diane's favorite flower! They remind us of a Helen Allingham style painting...


One day in June Diane took along her bucket as she walked along the hedgerows and Corgi Creek. She filled it with lovely Dame's Rocket. It took awhile to walk back to the house so when she returned Diane placed the bucket of Rocket in her cellar where it would be refreshed by the coolness. The flowers sit in front of a large stone pier, which was built as the base for a center chimney with three fireplaces on the first floor and another one upstairs. The walls and the floor in the cellar are all beautiful big stones. After the bouquet was refreshed Diane brought it up into her old fashioned kitchen which also serves as Emily & Ethlyn's Potions & Perfumery. E. & E.'s P. & P. is the Corgyn's pretend apothecary. The fragrance is delightful and as the petals fall the doll family at Corgyncombe will also gather them to save for potpourri. Dame's Rocket has always been one of Diane's most favorite flowers.


Petals are saved and dried as they fall from the bouquet of Dame's Rocket.


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Helen Allingham's "Happy England"

The Lovely Fragrance of Summer's Rose

Helen Allingham's "Happy England".

Helen Allingham was famous for her watercolour paintings of children in charming clothing, thatched cottages, gardens, stone walls, and lovely landscapes.


A pink Corgnycombe rose on an old vasculum. The vasculum has such a lovely button latch.


Helen Allingham
Atop the book is some lavender from Corgyncombe gardens that Diane dried.


Grace and her Mummy Eva
Diane's Great Aunt Eva bears a striking resemblance to Diane's mother and to Diane's daughter Sarah. We also think that Aunt Eva bears a resemblance to Helen Allingham. Eva's great grandfather came from the same area in England that Helen Allingham's grandmother was from.


Little Grace reminds us of the little girl with the doll on the left, in the Helen Allingham painting "The Young Customers". The little girls are considering purchasing a toy flat iron. The old lady clerk reminds us of Tasha Tudor.






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A Tasha Tudor Art Stand Made by Seth Tudor!

A Lovely Art Stand to Display Things Upon!

 
The Corgyncombe Courant is thrilled that Seth Tudor made a reproduction of Tasha Tudor's art stand for us!

 The art stand is beautiful and is perfect in the library for displaying books, cards, photographs, and art. It is also useful in the kitchen whilst cooking or baking for holding your receipts (an old word for recipes) or cookbook.

In the photograph above, "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook" is open to the page titled "Accompaniments". This is one of Diane's favorite illustrated pages in Tasha's cookbook, with many of Diane's favorite things.

Diane has always admired Tasha Tudor's art stand. Last winter, before Christmas, Seth made a miniature art stand for little Tasha. Diane was hoping that someday Seth would make her a full size art stand and he did!

Little Tasha is looking at an illustration of a Corgi licking a candy cane, with ribbons and holly all round. The book stand that holds the corgi illustration, is a miniature copy of the one Tasha Tudor had on her artist's table. It was made by Tasha Tudor's son Seth Tudor.
 
Little Tasha was named after Tasha Tudor because The Corgyncombe Courant was reminded of the portraits of Tasha Tudor when she was a girl painted by her mother Rosamond Tudor.

Little Tasha's miniature art stand was featured on Day 8 of "The Days Until Christmas: Amelia's Favorite Things" Advent Calendar.
Here is the link: "The Days Until Christmas: Amelia's Favorite Things"

A Helen Allingham painting titled "The Dairy Door, Farringford" in the book "The Homes of Tennyson".

Seth Tudor made the delightful miniature reproduction of the chair Tasha Tudor sat in whilst at her artist's table.

Priscilla Francelia, known by her dearest friends as Frizzy, and her Baby Doll wearing their Lapland clothing designed and made by Tillie Tinkham. Tillie Tinkham is the seamstress mouse at "Tillie Tinkham's Frocks & Fashions" at Corgyncombe.


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Corgyncombe Goat Kiddles Lucy and Louisa May

The Flying Lu-Lou's

Sarah and Lucy
The Corgyncombe Goat Kiddles Lucy and Louisa May are such a delight to watch as they jump and run and do side winding wheelies.

They can even fly!


Louisa May


Goat kiddles are so cute but they do require a lot of work, with milking, feeding, mucking their pen, hauling water, hoof trimming, and the gathering and the bringing in of the hay.

We oft' times fondly refer to the goat kiddles as our "goatie puppies" as they will follow along behind as a puppy would.






Diane and Sarah have enjoyed teas and elevenishes with their friend Tasha Tudor and discussed many of their common kindred interests. One can imagine it would be such fun to have a tea over by the garden of herbs whilst watching the goat kids play, with such kindred country ladies as Tasha Tudor, Beatrix Potter, Helen Allingham, Gertrude Jekyll, Louisa May Alcott, and Edith Holden, all together at the same tea.


When impatient for her bottle, Lucy can wail like The Queen of the Night in "The Magic Flute"! We think she learned from us humorously singing it in the barn in the months before she was born! We've never heard anything quite like it before from a goatie puppy!




Lucy and Louisa May are blended in motion as you can see Lucy the reddish brown goat with Louisa's white ears!











The other night as we were walking down to the barn to do the milking it was sprinkling, when all of a sudden the sun came out and a full arc rainbow appeared just as were to go into "The Ark", what we call our barn. It was the latest in the day rainbow I had ever seen. Whilst milking Corgyncombe Dairy Goat Carmella Lucille, I enjoyed the lovely sunset. When the milking and feeding were done and we came outside our barn called "The Ark", the fireflies were flickering out in the meadow and over by the garden of herbs.

Things such as these are a country woman's joy!

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Gathering Flowers Amidst the Beauty of Hill and Dale

"A Scientific Exploration Society"

Purple violets, wild strawberries, pink violet, forget-met-nots, and sweet woodruff.

In the old days children would go out and about in the woods, fields, hills, and dales and gather plant specimens for studying botany. A tin vessel with a tight fitting lid would keep the flower specimens fresh. This tin vessel is called a vasculum and has a strap for carrying over your shoulder.

An old glass slide from The Corgyncombe Magic Lantern Theatre.

The girls have gathered flowers, one lad is collecting butterflies, and if you look closely at the other lad you can see that he is collecting specimens in his vasculum.

The open vasculum with an old Botany book.

Diane lines the inside of the vasculum with moss and the plant specimens really do stay fresh for several days. The cover of this vasculum pictures goats, which we will feature in the future at The Corgyncombe Courant.

The large door on the outside of the vasculum has pictured a girl and a boy in a playhouse under a table. The girl is holding her dolly and the lad is smoking a pipe. They are joined by a dog and a spunky puppy.

The smaller door shows children dipping their toes in the cool water. The little kerchiefed girl looks just like Sarah when she was little.

In another old vasculum are Violas, Lily-of-the-valley, lawn daisy, pink violet, forget-me-nots, wild strawberries, and sweet woodruff.


Coltsfoot, Lily-of-the-valley, forget-me-nots, Johnny Jump Ups, violet, lawn daisies, and on the end sweet woodruff. Excepting the coltsfoot, all of these pressed flowers are those shown in the vasculum above.

A press used for pressing and drying flowers.

Violas gathered in a basket for pressing.

The flowers are sandwiched between pieces of blotter paper and cardboard. The wooden top of the press is placed on top and the screw is turned down to tighten. After they are pressed and dried they will be put in an Herbarium.

"Eleven Girls Dancing" in the book "1 is One", written and illustrated by Tasha Tudor. The whole book is full of a variety of lovely flower borders. The stone holding the page is one of Diane's favorite stones which she found whilst traversing her acreage. Corgyncombe Cottage received a print of "Eleven Girls Dancing" from "Tasha Tudor and Family" the other day. Many of Tasha Tudor's books and illustrations contain flowers.


After a May Day celebration complete with May Pole, in the meadow Sarah and her cousins danced round in a circle in the late afternoon sun.

"Song on May Morning"

Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger,

Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire;
Woods and groves are of thy dressing,
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.
Thus we salute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.
- John Milton

The above book, "The Flower Gatherers", by Jane Jay Fuller, is open to Chapter Second. 'Tis about a group of children who learn from Uncle John about the wild flowers as they are in flower throughout the months. The week before one of their lessons they gather every wild flower they find which they take to Uncle John to identify. In Chapter Third, as the moon is rising in the east, the children deliver May baskets to Uncle John's door. Uncle John was very touched and he said "So you have been Maying, and did not forget poor, old Uncle John!"

In the previous chapter Uncle John had given the children tin buckets for gathering their specimens in: "After tea, he presented to each of us a little, tall, tin bucket, with a close-fitting cover, and said, they would be much nicer for flower-gathering than baskets, because they would exclude the air and retain moisture."

A Botany book, a "Prize for Botanical Specimens" presented August 4th, 1896 to Vera Fisher from the school's Head Mistress M. Kendall.

Lilacs are usually in bloom near Memorial Day. When Diane thinks of lilacs she thinks of going with her Grandmum, taking lilacs, putting them in canning jars and placing them on the graves of their ancestors. Graves are always decorated in remembrance of those who had gone before on Memorial Day.

"Under The Lilacs" written by Louisa May Alcott.
Diane's 5th great grandfather Eliakim May was 1st cousin to Louisa May Alcott's great grandfather Samuel May.

In "Under the Lilacs" the children study botany. Louisa May Alcott wrote:

"We are a Scientific Exploration Society, and we must keep an account of all the plants, animals, minerals, and so on, as we come across them. Then, suppose we get lost, and have to hunt for food, how are we to know what is safe and what isn't? Come, now, do you know the difference between a toadstool and a mushroom?"

"No, I don't."

"Then I'll teach you some day. There is sweet flag and poisonous flag, and all sorts of berries and things; and you'd better look out when you are in the woods, or you'll touch ivy and dogwood, and have a horrid time, if you don't know your botany."

"But both boys found a new pleasure in the pretty pastime they made of it; for active Ben ranged the woods and fields with a tin box slung over his shoulder, and feeble Thorny had a little room fitted up for his own use, where he pressed flowers in newspaper books, dried herbs on the walls, had bottles and cups, pans and platters, for his treasures and made as much litter as he liked."

"Presently, Ben brought such lively accounts of the green nooks where jacks-in-the-pulpit preached their little sermons; brooks, beside which grew blue violets and lovely ferns; rocks, round which danced the columbines like rosy elves, or the trees where birds built, squirrels chattered, and woodchucks burrowed, that Thorny was seized with a desire to go and see these beauties for himself."

When Diane was growing up there was a hedge of lilacs between her playhouse and the goat barn.

Ragged-Robin, Lychnis flos-cuculi, is beautiful now along the roadsides.

"According to Season", written by Frances Theodora Parsons and illustrated by Elsie Louise Shaw, is about flowers throughout the seasons, starting with the earliest of flowers. Frances also speaks of birds. Also on the desk, the bird cards were cards that children could collect with information about the bird on the back.


Iris Florentina is now in glorious and abundant bloom at the Corgyncombe Gardens.

In several places Corgi Creek splits off and creates little islands. Diane and her husband took such a pleasant walk along Corgi Creek where the dame's rocket can be seen as far as the eye can see. The only thing one can hear is the babbling of the creek and birds singing. The rocket smells so sweet. It is a joy to the senses.... 'tis our own delightful paradise.

Dame's Rocket, Hesperis matronalis, often found at lawn's edge and where field meets wood, are in full bloom right now and are absolutely gorgeous. Their fragrance is lovely, especially at twilight. Dame's Rocket is Diane's favorite flower! They remind us of a Helen Allingham style painting...

The valley in spring.

Corgyncombe goat kiddle Louisa May is so cute!

The Corgyncombe Courant has more photographs of Louisa May and her sister Lucy that we hope to feature in a future edition of The Corgyncombe Courant.

If you would like to have a vasculum of your own, the talented tinsmith who made Diane's Tasha Tudor Reproduction Tin Kitchen (sold by "Tasha Tudor and Family"), also makes an 18th century and a 19th century vasculum.
Here is the link: Carl Giordano, Tinsmith: Vasculum

Click "View photo" to see one of the vasculums.

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