Miss Ambler's Household Book of Georgian Cures and Remedies E-Book

Marilyn Yurdan

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 87

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Elizabeth Ambler started compiling her household book of cures in the early eighteenth century, including historic treatments passed down over the decades. These intriguing remedies include Sir Walter Raleigh's Receipt against Plague, Viper Broth and Snail Milk Water, as well as Ginger Bread and Apricot Ratafia. In addition to traditional flowers and herbs, ingredients consist of precious stones, exotic and expensive spices, and large amounts of brandy and wine. Set against the backdrop of the family's country houses, silverware and lavish portraits, this book is much more than just a collection of curiosities: it offers a fascinating insight into the sickness and health of our Georgian ancestors, and into what really went on in their kitchens.

Leseprobe

First published 2013 as Lavender Water and Snail Syrup

This paperback edition first published 2023

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Marilyn Yurdan and Nicola Lillie, 2023

The right of Marilyn Yurdan and Nicola Lillie to be identified as the Authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 75249 390 9

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

Contents

Acknowledgements

Authors’ Note

Preface

Introduction

Enter the Kitchen: The Old Recipe Book

Larder Essentials

Fevers and Diseases

Wounds

Digestion

Respiratory

Women’s Health

Aches and Pains

Assorted Maladies

Conclusion

About the Authors

Physick Book frontispiece: An early photograph of a painting depicting the Ambler children.

Acknowledgements

Firstly, I would like to thank Marilyn Yurdan for her enthusiasm and work on transcribing the text, and for her writing which illuminates it so well. The multitude of ingredients has been made all the more fascinating by her explanations and details on the historical context.

The Holton Park Archive has been a great inspiration. I would like to extend my thanks to Kevin Heritage and Nigel Phillips for their generosity and the time they have taken to share the archive with me.

I would like to thank Alison Tennant of Tennants Auctioneers, Yorkshire. She has been so helpful since I first discovered that Tennants had sold the three Ambler portraits. I am very grateful to have been allowed to reproduce their photographs of the portraits.

I was delighted to find the watercolour of Spring Grove and am grateful to have been given permission to reproduce it by the City of London, London Metropolitan Archives.

Elisha Biscoe’s Free School at Norwood Green is a beautiful building and I want to thank the present owner for her kindness in allowing me to take photographs.

My visit to Spring Grove was wonderful; many thanks to Avril Cutting for her assistance. Thanks also to Annie Hartley for showing me around. At St Leonard’s Church, the Archivist, Lawson Cockcroft was very helpful.

Stubbings now has a garden centre in the large walled garden. My thanks go to Dudley and Janine Good for welcoming me and allowing me to photograph the house. Swallowfield is now a collection of apartments. I am grateful to Mrs Philip Jebb for showing me around.

Lastly, I want to thank Laura Lillie for her enthusiasm and commitment to the project. Her prints work well with Marilyn’s text as a celebration of Elizabeth Ambler’s treasured collection of cures and remedies.

Nicola Lillie

2013

Authors’ Note

In his Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, Dr Samuel Johnson defines a recipe as ‘a medical prescription’ and a receipt as a ‘prescription of ingredients for any composition’. Usage appears to have inclined towards ‘receipt’ for medical and ‘recipe’ for culinary concoctions until the former came only to mean an acknowledgment of something supplied. It should be mentioned that Johnson’s doctorates (1765 from Trinity College, Dublin, and 1775 from the University of Oxford) were both honorary ones, and that he held no medical qualifications whatsoever.

Preface

Oxford

In July 1992, I received a parcel from my godmother, Aunt Diana, who lived in Canada. It was just as exciting as her parcels had always been when I was a child – but different. On the Customs declaration form was written: ‘23 old forks & spoons. 3 ornaments. 1 old recipe book.’

As it transpired, the ornaments were actually a Georgian silver teapot, jug and bowl. These were embellished with the Biscoe family crest depicting a greyhound and hare beneath an oak tree. The forks and spoons bore the same crest and were heavy and beautifully shaped. The old recipe book, with brown suede cover and ninety-eight pages of receipts, was particularly intriguing. Inside the book, pasted to the front page, was a very old black-and-white photograph of a portrait. This portrait was of Elizabeth Ambler and her two brothers. Opposite the photograph was the title ‘Elizabeth Ambler her Physick Book’, and underneath the title had been written at a later date: ‘This lady was the 1st wife of Elisha Biscoe & Mother of Elisha Biscoe of Holton Park, Oxford. She died in Bedford Row 11 June 1766 aged 51. She & her husband are buried in the “Vicar’s Chancel” at Heston, Middx.’ Also added in pencil was ‘My great great grandmother.’

Holton Park, Oxfordshire c.1900. Built by Elizabeth’s son Elisha.

At that time, although I loved these objects, I had not realised their significance. I did not understand their history, nor did I focus clearly on the period of the eighteenth century, when the Physick Book was compiled. I was busy working, my children were young and I had little time to see that these objects could be a link with the past, a window through which there could be much to discover about my ancestor, Elizabeth Ambler. In 2009, seventeen years later, the silver teapot was in the dresser, polished occasionally, the forks and spoons in the cutlery drawer and the Physick Book set aside in a cupboard. In December that year, whilst visiting Oxford with my son, I had the time to visit Holton Park – a house that was built by Elizabeth’s son Elisha Biscoe in 1805. I had visited the house with my mother and grandmother in 1973, when it was a school. Knowing that it had become Wheatley Park School, with many new buildings in the grounds, I had gone to take a quick look at the house but then discovered that a small museum had been created in the old gatehouse. This was a wonderful archive, chronicling the history of the site, including the life of the Tyndale-Biscoe family, descendants of Elizabeth Ambler. The centrepiece of this archive was, for me, a collection of nearly 100 glass photographic plates in wooden boxes, accompanied by a display of the printed photographs. These depicted the Tyndale-Biscoe family and Holton Park and village in the period 1865–1910.

Early Georgian teapot and jug.

Biscoe crest on Georgian silver forks.

The year 1911 was when the family left Holton, when my grandmother Mollie was 13. Her later life differed considerably from her childhood at Holton and she emigrated to Canada after the Second World War with her two daughters, Diana and my mother Robin, who returned to England to marry my father six months later. My grandmother eventually returned to England but Diana stayed in Canada for the rest of her life, visiting us occasionally, sending lovely parcels and writing regularly. We became quite close, perhaps partly because she had no children herself. Diana had been given a collection of family treasures and history documents by her godmother and aunt, Dorothy. Aunt Dodo, as she was known to us, also had no children and was very keen on family history and ‘the Family Tree’. She told us many stories when we were young, to which I wish I had listened more carefully. This is how the Physick Book came from Canada to me, I had become the next custodian.

Holton Park, Oxford 2012.

The Holton Park Archive. This particular display includes wooden boxes of glass photographic plates, Tyndale-Biscoe photographs from the 1800s, china and objects found on the Holton Park estate.

Dorothy Tyndale-Biscoe with her parents Ethel and Stafford, and her Aunt Madge.

The Ambler Children: Humphry, Elizabeth and Charles. (Painted by Joseph Andre Cellony, 1726)

Humphry Ambler. (Attributed to George Knapton)

Returning to the archive at Holton and the collection of photographic plates: these belonged to Arthur Tyndale-Biscoe, younger brother of my great-grandfather Stafford. They record the life of the family at Holton and were taken by various members of the family during the period 1865–1910. This visual record of the past, linked not only with the ‘Old House’ itself but also with great aunts and uncles I had known as a child, was the inspiration for my enthusiasm. The objects and imagery from the past began to take on greater significance and meaning, the more I discovered about the people who owned them. All of this was leading back to Elizabeth Ambler and her Physick Book – fascinating and intriguing to us today, yet a vital part of daily family life to her.

Amongst the photographs at Holton was one of the portrait of Elizabeth and her two brothers, the one that I knew well from the book. This portrait was another focus of my attention and had also been much admired by previous generations, as shown by this excerpt from a memoir by my great uncle Bob, Robert Stafford Tyndale-Biscoe:

… in 1892, after the death of my Grandmother. It was probably at the time of Nata’s birth, that one lovely July morning we three children were seated at breakfast with Grandfather. I remember that I was sitting with my back to the windows looking out on the deer park, facing the picture over the fire-place of our great-great-Grandmother, the lovely Miss Ambler. Aunt Fanny, who was in charge of the house, came round and gave each of us a luscious apricot, our favourite fruit …1

Where was this portrait now? When the house was sold in 1911 it must have been sold or passed on to another branch of the family. It was large (2 x 1.75m) and beautifully painted. Some other Biscoe portraits went to Jamaica when Robert went to live there, but this portrait remained in England. While I was researching online, into other details of the family history and finding out about Elizabeth’s father, Humphry Ambler, I made a great discovery. Lot 791 from a sale at Tennants Auctioneers appeared on the screen: a portrait of Humphry Ambler. This was followed by a portrait of Anne Breame, his wife. The annotation read: ‘the sitter is the mother of the children in Lot 793.’ This was wonderful – Lot 793: the actual portrait in full colour.

Elizabeth Ambler and her Family

The portrait of Elizabeth and her two brothers was painted in 1726 when Elizabeth was 14, her brother Humphry was 13 and Charles was 5.

This painting2