nd of loaf sugar, and the
juice should be evaporated to the thickness of honey.

"The recent rob of the Elder spread thick upon a slice of bread and
eaten before other dishes," says Dr. Blochwich, 1760, "is our
wives' domestic medicine, which they use likewise in their infants
and children whose bellies are stop't longer than ordinary; for this
juice is most pleasant and familiar to children; or to loosen the
belly drink a draught of the wine at your breakfast, or use the
conserve of the buds."

Also a capital wine, which may well pass for Frontignac, is
commonly made from the fresh berries, with raisins, sugar, and
spices. When well brewed, and three years' old, it constitutes
English port. "A cup of mulled Elder wine, served with nutmeg
and sippets of toast, just before going to bed on a cold wintry
night, is a thing," as Cobbet said, "to be run for." The juice of
Elder root, if taken in a dose of one or two tablespoonfuls when
fasting, acts as a strong aperient, being "the most excellent purger
of watery humours in the world, and very singular against dropsy,
if taken once in the week."

John Evelyn, in his _Sylva_ (1729), said of the Elder: "If the
medicinal properties of its leaves, bark, and berries, were fully
known, I cannot tell what our countrymen could ail, for which he
might not fetch a remedy from every hedge, either for sickness or
wounds." "The buds boiled in water gruel have effected wonders in a
fever," "and an extract composed [168] of the berries greatly
assists longevity. Indeed,"--so famous is the story of Neander--
"this is a catholicum against all infirmities whatever." "The leaves,
though somewhat rank of smell, are otherwise, as indeed is the
entire shrub, of a very sovereign virtue. The springbuds are
excellently wholesome in pottage; and small ale, in which Elder
flowers have been infused, are esteemed by many so salubrious,
that this is to be had in most of the eating houses about our town."

"It were likewise profitable for the scabby if they made a sallet of
those young buds, who in the beginning of the spring doe bud
forth together with those outbreakings and pustules of the skin,
which by the singular favour of nature is contemporaneous; these
being sometimes macerated a little in hot water, together with
oyle, salt, and vinegar, and sometimes eaten. It purgeth the belly,
and freeth the blood from salt and serous humours" (1760).
Further, "there be nothing more excellent to ease the