Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly

As well as brooch pillows, I have been making more little lavender pillows, ready for the Christmas Fairs I am booked in to. (Thank you Mrs Fruit for the supply of Lavender!).
These dry little flower nibs have been giving off a heavenly scent as I pop a good handful into each pillow. In a stack of two, finished off with a vintage button, they sold well as stocking fillers last year and I’m hoping they will do so again this year.
I love the smell of lavender and find its perfume an excellent antidote to the early onset of a headache or as a relaxant when the stress levels are rising!

A member of 39 species of flowering plant in the Mint family, Lavender has been documented for at least 2,500 years.
Displayed in the little case I bought last week, now lined with old sheet music

Thought to have been introduced to the UK when the Romans conquered southern Britain, they used it in their baths, for cooking and as an insect repellent. It was an expensive luxury in Roman times with a pound of flowers costing a months wage, or fifty haircuts from the local barber.

In Medieval Europe laundrywomen were known as ‘Lavenders’, as they used Lavender to scent drawers and dried the laundry on Lavender bushes. Greek women hung lavender next to their beds to incite the passions.
Lavender was grown in monastery gardens, along with many other medicinal herbs. According to German nun Hildegard of Bingen (who died in 1179), Lavender Water (a decoction of vodka, gin or brandy mixed with Lavender) is great for migraine headaches and is also effective in the treatment of head lice and fleas.
During London’s Great Plague in the 17th century, it was suggested that a bunch of Lavender fastened to each wrist would protect the wearer against the deadly disease. After doing their dirty work, grave robbers at the time, were known to wash themselves and their spoils in ‘Four Thieves Vinegar’ which contained the herb and they rarely contracted the disease.
In 16th century France, Lavender was used as protection against infection and glovemakers who were licensed to perfume their wares with Lavender often seemed to escape cholera.

Charles VI of France demanded lavender-filled pillows wherever he went. England’s Queen Elizabeth I requested lavender conserve at the royal table and also demanded fresh lavender flowers to be available every day of the year, a daunting task for a gardener having to deal with England’s climate! Louis XIV bathed in water scented with it and Queen Victoria used a lavender deodorant. Young Victorian women placed small Lavender bags in their cleavage in the hope of attracting a suitor.

Both Elizabeth I and II used products from the famous lavender company, Yardley and Co. of London
 

In the US and Canada, the Shakers were the first to grow lavender commercially. A strict sect of celibate English Quakers who had little use for lavender's amorous qualities, developed herb farms upon their arrival from England. Producing their own herbs and medicines, they sold them to the "outside world” and eventually a New York advertising firm took them on and sold their products worldwide.
Chemist and aromatherapist, Rene Gattefosse (1881-1950), verified the healing and antiseptic qualities of Lavender. After severely burning both hands in his lab, he bathed his arm with Lavender oil – the pain stopped and the burn healed quickly with no infection or scarring. Here is his description of the incident:

"The external aplication of small quantities of essences rapidly stops the spread of gangrenous sores. In my personal experience, after a laboratory explosion covered me with burning substances which I extinguished by rolling on a grassy lawn, both my hands were covered with a rapidly developing gas gangrene. Just one rinse with lavender essence stopped "the gasification of the tissue". This treatment was followed by profuse sweating, and healing began the next day (July 1910)".

Lavender oil was then used to dress wounds during the 1st World War when antiseptics were in short supply.

Lavender may even be useful against impotence. In a study of men, the scent of pumpkin and lavender rated as the scent found most arousing!

Lavender blue and Rosemary green,
When I am King you shall be Queen;
Call up my maids at four o’clock,
Some to the wheel and some to the rock;
Some to make hay and some to shear corn,
And you and I will keep the bed warm.

Songs for the Nursery (1805)