And so to the Mother of Medicinal Plants: Chelsea Physic Garden, est 1763. A fine walled garden it is….but don’t go expecting Kew. Its small, ordered and actually on first glance not so mind blowing. Its not about the show – these are clever plants. I’m going to go here again in quick succession with the new kid on the block in the next post. Chelski too has good lectures – from bee keeping (anyone would think we actually depend on bees this is such a popular course!) to aphrodisiacs and perfumes. I wonder how quickly I could knock up my fave perfume to save a few bob in the future. I’m only a brief step away from using charcoal for khol.
I went to the Apothecary Hall in the city over September’s Open House a couple of years ago. They had some very special illustrations from the C17th of the brief journey these plants would make from Chelsea to the City to be processed into poultices and ointments and the like. They hadn’t quite got their head around perspective so it was a wonderfully flat interprtation of the world. To and fro they went on the boats….I want that print, tt would look just fine hanging on my wall.
June 13th History of Medicine: Garden Tour with Ann Chappell
June 30th Aphrodisiacs from Plants with Peter Houghton
July 16th Making Perfumes and Cosmetics from Plants with Christopher Slevin and Jennifer Jambon
Chelsea Physic Garden, Royal Hospital Road, London SW3
