ed sacred,
"Porrum et caepe nefas violare et frangere morsu" (Juvenal); we know how
Leeks were relished in Egypt by the Israelites; and among the Greeks
they "appear to have constituted so important a part in ancient gardens,
that the term +prasia+, or a bed, derived its name from +prason+, the
Greek word for Onion," or Leek[138:1] (Daubeny); while among the
Anglo-Saxons it was very much the same. The name is pure Anglo-Saxon,
and originally meant any vegetable; then it was restricted to any
bulbous vegetable, before it was finally further restricted to our Leek;
and "its importance was considered so much above that of any other
vegetable, that _leac-tun_, the Leek-garden, became the common name of
the kitchen garden, and _leac-ward_, the Leek-keeper, was used to
designate the gardener" (Wright). The plant in those days gave its name
to the Broad Leek which is our present Leek, the Yne Leek or Onion, the
Garleek (Garlick), and others of the same tribe, while it was applied to
other plants of very different families, as the Hollow Leek (_Corydalis
cava_), and the House Leek (_Sempervivum tectorum_).

It seems to have been considered the hardiest of all flowers. In the
account of the Great Frost of 1608, "this one infallible token" is given
in proof of its severity. "The Leek whose courage hath ever been so
undaunted that he hath borne up his lusty head in all storms, and could
never be compelled to shrink for hail, snow, frost, or showers, is now
by the violence and cruelty of this weather beaten unto the earth, being
rotted, dead, disgraced, and trod upon."

Its popularity still continues among the Welsh, by whom it is still, I
believe, very largely cultivated; but it does not seem to have been much
valued in England in Shakespeare's time, for Gerard has but little to
say of its virtues, but much of its "hurts." "It hateth the body,
ingendreth naughty blood, causeth troublesome and terrible dreames,
offendeth the eyes, dulleth the sight, &c." Nor does Parkinson give a
much more favourable account. "Our dainty eye now refuseth them wholly,
in all sorts except the poorest; they are used with us sometimes in Lent
to make pottage, and is a great and generall feeding in Wales with the
vulgar gentlemen." It was even used as the proverbial expression of
worthlessness, as in the "Roumaunt of the Rose," where the author says,
speaking of "Phiciciens and Advocates"--

"For by her wille, without leese,
Everi man shul