THE SCENT OF ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE SCENT OF ENGLAND

Lavender, Not Rose, Should Be England’s Emblem » (By Michael Corvin.) J WOULD not go quite as far as my friend John Stuart, who says he can tell an Englishman anywhere in the world with his eyes shut, or more particularly an Englishwoman—provided he could come near enough to them with his nose. But he is right; there clings to almost all of them a delicate scent, often barely perceptible, a faint, bitter-sweet perfume from their lingerie, their powder or their skin, reminiscent of herbs, of gently sloping meadows and the broad parklands of the English landscape.

JN Hertfordshire in August this scent hangs like a veil over the parish of Hitchin, and in Surrey it pervades the air principally of Mitcham. Carshalton and Beddington. The emblem of England should not be the rose but rather the flower of the lavender, with its blue, singly unpretentious blossoms, waving in the wide lavender fields like a dream lake in the wind. Lavender is as closely connected with the conception of England as the broom with , the house of Plantagenet. At some time in the past the plant was introduced from abroad. Maybe a Roman centurion received from Rome a parcel in which some fragile objects and perhaps a winter undervest or two were wrapped in lavender to protect them from damage. Perhaps the young man made an excursion into the country, and with a natural carelessness made litter of the wrappings of his parcel. And from them sprung the first English lavender bush.

There are many anecdotes of how the idea came about of putting bags of lavender into linen cupboards. At first the flowers and.seeds were simply strewn among the piles of linen in the

presses. The original invention of the lavender hag is attributed to a naughty boy who put the stuff In his sister’s bed, instead of the chopped horse hair which had been his first intention. The success of this prank was amazing: true, the lavender stalks scratched her skin, but the next morning the girl smelled so sweet and fresh that a jarl—it was in Danish times—married her on the spot. From this moment the other maidens of the land did their best to titillate the nostrils of some jarl into a proposal of marriage. From this time on lavender was used more, and more generally adopted in various forms. It was discovered that an oil could be pressed from the plant which held the scent more strongly and more purely than the dried flowers or the seeds.

Lavender was being grown in the parish of Hitchin for marketing as far back as 1568, and a generation later we find the first lavender-sellers in the streets of London. In 1597, the botanist and chemist, Gerard, wrote in his “History of Plantes of Lavender”: “Lavender water, bathed on the temples and forehead, is refreshing to those who suffer from swoons .. . mixed with cinnamon, nutmegs and cloves, made into powder and given to drink in the distilled water thereof, doth help the panting and passions of the heart, prevaileth against giddiness, turning or swimming of the brain and members subject to palsy.” Yet another hundred years were to pass, for we are still only in the seventeenth century, before the heyday of scents and perfumes came. This was in the rococo period. The luxury of that age embraced not only feminine attire, but extended equally at least to men’s dress, which was more elaborate and richer than ever before. But, as the use of cleansing soap had not kept pace with this luxury, it was imperative to smell strongly, if one attached any importance to smelling nice.

The consumption of lavender rose enormously.

In those days it was difficult even

for a dog with a good nose to distinguish his master’s from a strauger's scent —they all smelled of • lavender. For this reason the police dog was not discovered till a later age, for the thief smelled like any other man—of lavender.

There is a classic instance of the attraction which this scent possessed, to say nothing of its commercial possibilities. In the latter part of the eighteenth century there lived in London a sword-cutler and locksmith named Yardley. William Yardley married his daughter to Cleaver, a manufacturer of soaps and perfumes, who, despite the demands made upon him by the boom in lavender, preferred gambling to attending to bis business. Cleaver lost his whole fortune in a single night at cards, and shortly afterwards dissipated a loan of twenty thousand pounds which his father-in-law had guaranteed.

■ In this way the old armourer took up lavender, and when he found himself saddled with a soap shop, a new change in fashion stood him in good stead. People were beginning to tire of wigs, and the moment more and more men started wearing their own hair there was an extraordinary demand for hair

washes and other scented toilet preparations. What was more obvious than to wet the hair with lavender? During the years that followed the smell of lavender developed from a mere scent into an English tradition. At that time, in 1793, the painter Wheatley made his famous thirteen coloured engravings, “The Cries of London,” one of the series representing the London lavender-seller with two children and a dog patently crazy about lavender. And now it was seen what a scent can achieve if only the noses of the public are made aware of it long enough. Until 1823, lavender was still allowed to grow at its own sweet will, even though at this time many gardeners had already planted it in large quantities and had firm contracts with the producers of lavender water in London and elsewhere. But this year marked the beginning of the scientific exploitation of the plant, so that today the finest and most valuable lavender oil is obtained and manufactured in Britain. Wild and semi-cultivated lavender is still imported from the South of France, but this natural product is far surpassed by the English lavender in the delicacy of its perfume and the richness of its oil.

A god-daughter of Queen Mary has arranged her wedding at the same church where her father and mother were married. She is Miss Gloria Congreve, daughter of the late Major W. La T. Congreve, V.C., and the Hon. Mrs. William Fraser.