The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-10-03
SWEET LAVENDER.
THE DELICATE PERFUME so
POPULAR A CENTURY AGO.
An Old-Fashioned Fragrant Water
That Found Favor With
Grand Danes In the
Olden Time.

The lavender fields of Surry were once
of great value, remarks the London
Standard, but the importatioas of the
fragrant oil from Japan and America
Cheaper in price though inferior in
quality seriously injured the prosperity
of the home dealers, and some twenty
FIVE years ago the business of lavender
cultivation near Carshalton was rapidly
declining. An energetic woman, owner
of an oil distillery which had been in
her family for over century, then at
tempted to revive the industry, and now
the air around Wellington is fragrant
with the scent of the sweet plant which
Miss Sprules ('Purveyor of Lavender
Water to the Queen" as she is permitted
to style herself distills into oil and
lavender water.
Lavender was the favorite product of
the herb gardens of our great grand
mothers. Laid among raiment and linen
its dried flowers were valued as preserv-
atives against moth as we'll as conveyors
Of perfume. To ransack old chests in
country houses Is usually to fill the air
with the faint fragrance of lavender.
The expression to "lay up in lavender, I"
was a cant phrase two centuries ago for
visit to a pawnbroker's. Ben Johnson
thus alludes to '.black satin suit which
now lies in lavender" the article in
question being pledged.
Lavender was an emblem of affection,
possibly 80 selected because of its lasting
fragrance. Drayton, in his eclos osues,
speaks of pair of lovers exchanging
posies of lavender and rosemary as to-
kens of affection and remembrance.
Some persons have as strong an antipa-
thy to scents as had Louis XIV, and
his mother, Anne of Austria, tainted at
inhaling the scent of roses; the King
disliked perfumes, and prohibited their
use about him in later days. The most
candid of autobiographists, the second
wife of the Duke of Orleans. Charlotte
of Bavaria, mentions this fancy of the
Kings, adding, "however, the Old One
(as she styles her hated rival, Madame
de Maintenon) always used perfume, and
persuaded the King 1t was carried by
other people,"
Persons with this dislike to strong
scents cannot echo the praises of "sweet
lavender, :" which certainly eAhalesa pow
erful fragrance. The perfume is pleas
ATTEST when mellowed by time, and
family impaired to household linen.
"Lavendcr-scent sheets' are always
described among the attractions at the
ideal rustic inn or country abode. No
country garden is complete without 8
lavender bush; and, though street cries
are nearly extinct in London, 'tsweet
lavender is still retailed by hawkers
with the old call. Old-fashioned house
wives had knack OF weaving dainty
ribbon-bound faggots out of sprlgs of
lavender, which were laid away with
linen or ra ment as perfumes and preserv-
atives against the ravages of moths.
Country lasses often carry lavender
sprigs, instead of scent bottles, to
church. ..'
At the Wallington distillery even the
refuse of the lavender is turned to &C.
count, the stalks being used as litter
for stables as we'll as manure. 1t is sat-
isfactory to hear of some native industry
that appears in anyway fourishing. and
lavender seems such peculiarly English
plant that it is according to the ''ituess
of things" that native distillery should
supply this perfume to our royal palaces.
La, ender is always associated with the
typical English cottage home, the life of
rustic innocence" so be-rhymed by
eighteenth century poets.
Distilleries like those of Walllington
are of ancient date, though the name of
"distillery" usually conjures up other
visions than those of flowers. Benvenuto
Cellini, writing in 1913, speaks of dis
tiller of perfumed waters which were OK
cellent for the complexion" as having
lately set up a factory in Paris. Accord
ing to the Italian writer, this was the
first introduction of ''perfumed waters"
into France, and he mentions that this
distiller won favor with Francis I.
pleasing with gifts of his novel perfumes,
and interesting by exhibiting the process
of manufacture. Perfumes are said to
have existed in France as early as the
twelfth century, but probably the dis
tiller alluded to by Cellini had intro
duced navel machinery, and produced
superior scents. Perfumes OF all kinds
we're lavishly introduced into France by
Catherine de Medici, in whose time the
perfumer too often combined the trades
of scent maker and poisoner. There is
something cmincntly respectable about
"sweet lavender" it is homely, nm
SOPHISTICATED perfume. 1t is credited
with no miraculous effects on the COM
plexion: it is associated with no tragic
tales of poisons lurking under It's
scented b:eath. 1t is not initiated by
slsilful chemists, who call products Of
all-many of nasty-substances by the
alluring names of frui: flowers and fruit
perfumes. Visitors to the Surrey lavcn-
der feds may trace the process of the
manufacture of the fragrant "water,"
from the growth of the plant through
its passage through vats and stills to its
final emergence as "pure English lavender
water" The favorite English scented
planted is yet distilled in the country of
its growth, and though large quantities
of perfumes are imported from England,
Wellington can boast that it yet exports
some of its fragrant manufactures, India
being customer for some Of the Surrey
wares.
Russian Baths.