musement. They are these: the 'first
spring tea,' the 'white dew,' the 'coral dew,' the 'dewy shoots,' the
'money shoots,' and the 'rivulet garden tea.' 'Tea,' says he, 'is of a
cooling nature, and, if drunk too freely, will produce exhaustion and
lassitude. Country people, before drinking it, add ginger and salt, to
counteract this cooling property. It is an exceedingly useful plant;
cultivate it, and the benefit will be widely spread; drink it, and the
animal spirits will be lively and clear. The chief rulers, dukes, and
nobility, esteem it; the lower people, the poor and beggarly, will not
be destitute of it; all use it daily, and like it.' Another author
upon tea says, that 'drinking it tends to clear away all impurities,
drives off drowsiness, removes or prevents headache, and it is
universally in high esteem.'

FOOTNOTES:

[3] _A Journey to the Tea-Countries of China._ By Robert Fortune.
1852.

THE GREAT OYER OF POISONING.

In a previous article, an account was given of the proceedings against
the Earl and Countess of Somerset for the murder of Sir Thomas
Overbury. Though they were spared, several other persons were executed
for this offence; and the circumstances under which those who were
represented as the chief criminals escaped, while the others, whose
guilt was represented as merely secondary, were executed, is among the
most mysterious parts of the history. There was so much said about
poisoning throughout the whole inquiry, that Sir Edward Coke gave the
trials the name of 'The Great Oyer of Poisoning.' Oyer has long been a
technical term in English law; and it is almost unnecessary to
explain, that it is old French for _to hear_--_oyer and terminer_
meaning, to hear and determine. The same inscrutable reasons which
make the evidence so imperfect against the chief offenders, affect the
whole of it. But while the exact causes of the death of Sir Thomas
Overbury may be left in doubt, as well as the motives which led to it,
enough is revealed in the trials of the minor offenders to throw a
remarkable light on the strange habits of the time, and especially on
the profligacy and credulity of the court of King James.

The first person put to trial was Richard Weston, who had been
appointed for the purpose of taking charge of Sir Thomas Overbury. If
he had been murdered by poison, there could be no doubt that Weston
was one of the perpetrators. He had been brought up as an apothecary;
and it was s