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Of eminent residents in Holborn itself, Cunningham mentions Gerarde, the author of the "Herbal"; Sir Kenelm Digby; Milton, who lived for a time in one of the houses on the south side, looking upon Lincoln's Inn Fields; and Dr. Johnson, who lived at the sign of the Golden Anchor, Holborn Bars.

Angelica was in olden times used as an antidote for poisons. The juice of the arum was considered good for the plague, and Gerarde tells us that Henry VIII. was, "wont to drink the distilled water of broom-flowers against surfeits and diseases thereof arising."

The health-giving properties of various plants have long been in the highest repute, and have given rise to numerous well-known proverbs, which are still heard in many a home. Thus old Gerarde, describing the virtues of the mallow, tells us: "If that of health you have any special care, Use French mallows, that to the body wholesome are." Then there is the time-honoured adage which says that:

According to Gerarde, the Spartans were in the habit of eating cress with their bread, from a popular notion very generally held among the ancients, that those who ate it became noted for their wit and decision of character. Hence the old proverb: "Eat cress to learn more wit." Of fruit proverbs we are told that, "If you would enjoy the fruit, pluck not the flower." And again:

Gerarde, describing it, tells us how, "the root of Solomon's seal stamped, while it is fresh and greene, and applied, taketh away in one night, or two at the most, any bruise, black or blue spots, gotten by falls, or women's wilfulness in stumbling upon their hasty husbands' fists." For the same reason it was called by the French herbalists "l'herbe de la rupture."

In Gerard's Herbal, a medical work published in 1596 "Gathered by John Gerarde of London, Master in Chirurgerie" it is laid down that "the root of the Briar-bush is a singular remedy found out by oracle against the biting of a mad dog."

They are good food either boiled or roasted." This must strike anyone as a very accurate description of the potato. Gerarde, in his Herbal, published in 1597, gives a figure of the potato under the name of the potato of Virginia. He asserts that he received the roots from that country, and that they were denominated Naremberga.

In the seventeenth century John Gerarde wrote concerning it that "the smelle rejoyceth the heart of man." Indeed, it has been so universally esteemed that it is found wild in nearly all countries to which civilization has extended. It has been known as an escape from American gardens for about 200 years, and is sometimes troublesome as a weed in moist soil. Description.

To go minutely into the differences and distinctions of the race would require a book all to itself, for in 1597, more than three hundred years ago, Gerarde wrote: "There are, under the name of Caryophyllus, comprehended diuers and sundrie sorts of plants, of such variable colours and also severall shapes that a great and large volume would not suffice to write of euery one in particular."

Gerarde also alludes to an old belief that cats, "Are much delighted with catmint, for the smell of it is so pleasant unto them, that they rub themselves upon it, and swallow or tumble in it, and also feed on the branches very greedily." And according to an old proverb they have a liking for the plant maram: "If you set it, the cats will eat it; If you sow it, the cats won't know it."