GLOSSARY, CONTINUED:

sack is a generic name for fortifed wine from Spain or the Canaries: it mightbe Malaga, Sherry, Canary or Palma (Majorca). The word (Robinson) may derive fromthe Spanish for export (sacas), rather than from the French for dry (sec).

sage of virtue is the 'narrow hoary-leaved sage' (Mawe & Abercrombie),a variety of Salvia officinalis.

saintfoin, or more properly, sainfoin, is the forage plant Onobrychissativa. The word meant not 'holy' hay, but 'healthy' hay.

sal volatile is an aromatic solution of ammonium carbonate, smellingsalts.

salivate, to: it was a tactic of early medicine to provoke excesssalivation, as you might provoke a sweat. The usual agent was mercury and the processwas part of the traditional cure for the venereal pox.

salprunella is saltpetre burnt over charcoal, melted and cast intomoulds.

steel, salt or powder of, is 'usually' (OED) iron chloridebut may be sulphate of iron. 'Flowers of steel' were obtained by heating iron withsal-ammoniac. It may also be called copperose of Mars or vitriol of Mars.

saltpetre is potassium nitrate. It may be obtained by mixing decayingnitrogenous matter with lime (alkali), air and water, adding to the solution wood-ashor potassium, then crystallizing the result.

sassafras is the bark of the sassafras laurel, native to America.The oil was made from the roots of the tree.

scald-berry is the blackberry.

scald-head is a skin disease, usually ringworm, but it may covera multitude of scalp conditions, from pustules to scurf.

scotch pill was, Ellis states, a physic which killed by frequentapplication. It was a mixture of aloes, jalap, gamboge and anise.

scurvy-grass is Cochlearia officinalis.

sear-cloth or cerecloth was a cloth impregnated with wax or stickysalve. It might be used as a winding sheet, or as a medicinal plaster.

searse or searce is sieve or strainer. The verb is the action ofsieving or straining.

seaton or seton (from the medieval Latin for bristle, and alsosilk) is a thread or tape drawn through the skin next to a wound or sore to keepopen an issue, to stop it entirely healing over.

sena or senna are the seeds of the cassia shrub, used as an emeticor laxative.

shepherd's-pouch, shepherd's-purse are two names for the Capsellabursa-pastoris, a common weed also called 'Naughty Man's Plaything' (Grigson).

shield is the thick skin on the flanks of a boar that makes upthe outside of the joint called brawn.

shock is a group of sheaves of wheat or corn stood up in the feldbefore gathering and storing in the barn or rick. The word itself derives from medievalGerman and was a collective noun meaning sixty.

sluts-pennies are hard pieces in dough caused by imperfect kneading.The definition in OED is derived solely from this reference in Ellis.

smallage is Apium graveolens, wild or primitive celery.

snake-root is the root or rhizome of one of several American plantsdeemed fine antidotes to snake's venom.

soucing or sousing is pickling. Souce-drink is pickle or brine.

spanish fly is cantharides, from the beetle also called blisterbeetle. It is dried to a powder and its active agent is cantharidin. Applied externally,it blisters; internally, it is an emetic, as well as promoting tumescence. A littlegoes far.

spire, to, describes the shooting upwards of corn or grain in afeld in wet or adverse conditions.

steen or stean is an earthenware jar.

stœchas or Lavendula stœchas is the French lavender. TheIles d'Hyères were called the Stœchades due to the quantities of the plant foundthere. It was an expectorant (among other things).

stone is a measure, usually weighing 14 pounds. However, Ellisalso refers to the eight-pound stone -- which was the measure for sugar and spice(OED).

stroakings or strokings are well defined by Ellis. They are theafterings, the last milk taken from the cow, and the richest. Smollett's RoderickRandom was treated to choice bits from the cook and stroakings from the milkmaid.

sublimate mercury is mercury that has been heated, vapourized,then resolidifed into a white powder.

succory is chicory (Cichorium intybus).

tarnrise plough is the turnwrest or the Kentish plough where themould-board is shifted from one side to the other at the end of a furrow (OED).

tarrass is a waterproof mortar made of a sort of pumice importedfrom Germany.

tea, bohea, is black tea, fermented before drying; and green teasare made with leaves dried immediately after picking and not fermented (Davidson).

tent: probe of soft material for cleaning or searching wounds.

thetches are vetches.

thrum-thread describes short odds and ends of thread, specificallystrong yarn as might be used for a warp: the thrums were the ends of the warp notactually woven, trimmed off after taking from the loom.

tills are lentils. Worlidge (1640) says that Hampshire people thoughtthe word lentils indicated the season of Lent, so they left out the frst syllableas 'not agreeing with the matter' (OED).

underline or underling, meaning weak (of animals, people or plants).

unlucky: Ellis' usage means not so much full of misfortune as mischievousand bad-tempered. OED cites the agricultural author John Mortimer (d.1707)who so describes a stallion.

vellicate, to, means to irritate. Usually, as here, deployed todescribe the action of an astringent medication.

venice treacle was an electuary on a honey (later, molasses) base,especially good against venom but with many other properties. First developed inItaly, then exported throughout Europe from Venice, hence its name.

venice turpentine: common turpentine consisted of oleo-resins thatexude from many types of conifers (the French cluster-pine in the Landes districtthe most important). Venice turpentine was the particular product of larch treesin the Tirol.

verjuice is the fermented juice (in England) of crabs or sour apples;elsewhere it was made of acid green or unripe grapes.

vitriol is a sulphate of metal, i.e. metal acted upon by acid.Unqualifed, it usually refers to sulphate of iron (copperas) -- green vitriol. Spiritof vitriol is a distilled essence of sulphuric acid.

wallops describe the bubbling of water when coming to the boil,i.e. 'boiled a few wallops'. Ellis' use seems archaic, most of the citations by OEDare early.

wash is, generally, liquid food for animals, but usually it denotesrefuse, kitchen or brewery swill, given especially to pigs (hogwash).

water-dock-root is debatable. It may refer to the butterbur (Petasiteshybridus), called the water-docken in Cumbria, and known as a plant whose leaveswere good for wrapping butter (as was dock). The root was a febrifuge (Grigson).

white-ash herb is probably ground elder.

wig is a small cake of lightly spiced and sweetened bread dough,or more simply (for a harvest-man's beaver) just a small cake of dough.

yelm is a bundle of straw laid straight for thatching.

yelt is a young sow or gilt.

yetted: Ellis speaks of 'yetted barley', he may mean barley infusedor soaked in water or milk. There is no parallel for his employment of the word.

GLOSSARY A-G     GLOSSARY H-R