IN CONNECTION WITH THE TOWN OF SAFFRON WALDEN. 13
poison, and Gerard ascribes to saffron potent qualities which it does
not possess.7 In many of the British Floras it is said to be indigenous,
and even so eminent a botanist as Sir J. E. Smith has fallen into the
error. Loudon makes no distinction between the two species, but
our accomplished botanist Ray knew better ; he says, "Nothing is
known concerning its place of spontaneous growth, and no wild plant
is to be seen where it had been cultivated two hundred years."
Saffron is said to be a mild aperient, but its medicinal uses are now
confined to the measles and a few other complaints. The old-
fashioned people of the last generation used it in mild cases, and
rhubarb in more virulent ones. I well remember their medicine
boxes containing both these drugs. A list of the prices as recorded
in the "Liber Fraternitatis Sanctae; Trinitatis de Walden" may be
interesting, but it must be remembered that money was then of far
more value than now.
Saffron varied much in price in abundant or unproductive years,
but from this time, from foreign introduction and from its disuse as
a medicine, it rapidly declined both in cultivation and value.
Probably I am almost the only man who has ever seen a field of
saffron in bloom—that is, in this vicinity. The last of the saffron
growers, with whom I was well acquainted when a child, was named
Knot. He lived at Duxford, in Cambridge, about six miles N.W.
of this town. He grew about half an acre, and made a journey once
a year to dispose of his produce. In later years the journey was
too much for him, and his friend, William Thurnal, acted for him.
Up to 1816 he continued to grow saffron, and in 1818 the only
remains of the crocus were to be found in his garden. I well
remember the clay ovens and the sheets of white-brown paper used
in drying the chives. In a conversation with his grandson some
7 Ray does the same. "Synopsis" (Ed. 724), p. 374.—Ed.