Herbs Past and Present by Charles Garcia
Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, and Handicapped Parking 
The Friday after Thanksgiving Day begins the annual Charles Dickens’ Christmas Faire season here in the San Francisco Bay Area. A corollary to the Renaissance Faire activities, this faire recreates Victorian London during the holiday season, using the novels and characters of Dickens as a template. Over the 30 some years I’ve lived in the Bay Area the faire has migrated from various locales to its current home at the Cow Palace. For the last three weeks my daughter Sarah has been attending classes for diction and traditional carols. This is also an excuse to gather for potlucks, good wine and other activities I may not want to know my daughter is involved in.
Be that as it may, over the years I’ve decided to join into the festivities in full costume. I attend as a gentleman from San Francisco visiting his daughter over the holidays, Doctor Ernest Navarro at your service. This allows me to attend without attempting a faux British accent. My wife attends as a liberated woman of the day, in trousers and a bright red riding hat. This is somewhat scandalous to the well bred Victorians.
During the run of faire you may well run into Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, the three Spirits of Christmas, and numerous explorers, writers, and celebrities of the time. You may even catch a glimpse of young Queen Victoria on the arm of Prince Albert. Rumor has it, Henry Morton Stanley might show up from the depths of darkest Africa to share the story of his meeting with Dr. Livingston, I presume.
While the costumes and accents might be perfect, I’ve noticed that historically these folks seem exceptionally healthy (with the exception of Tiny Tim of course.) The Victorian age in London was a cesspool of tuberculosis, venereal disease, high infant mortality, drug use, alcoholism, and numerous bronchial problems due to wood and coal smoke. Hunger and starvation were also not unheard of.
So if I were suddenly transported back in time, in full costume, how would this modern herbalist deal with such problems?
I make bronchial syrups which are popular amongst the street people of Richmond and many of the actors backstage at the Cow Palace. I’m sure the street denizens of old London would have agreed.
Two cups of fennel seeds, six sticks of cinnamon, one ounce of grated ginger, a handful of fresh thyme or a handful of fresh prunella (also known as Heal-all). Add to 32 ounces of dark honey and simmer in a double boiler for three to four hours. Stir and avoid boiling over. Filter out the solid material and bottle while still warm.
This is a non-narcotic cough and bronchial syrup. I give this to my daughter to share with the performers at Dickens’ Faire. You won’t get sleepy, it eases cough, and the honey, thyme or prunella will act as antibiotics and sooth the throat.
Despite what you might read in old and modern herbals, there are no effective herbal treatments for venereal diseases – not then, not now. There are herbs that may help the urinary tract feel better, such as sarsaparilla and heavy doses of chamomile tea with marigold.
Like old London, Dickens’ Faire has its share of ailments passed around due to close quarters. Add this to thousands of visitors, you may hear a deep throaty cough being passed around from Mad Sal’s Dockside Ale House to Fezziwig’s Warehouse. To avoid pneumonia (a common killer in the Victorian era) heavy doses of garlic, either straight or in honey (popular with many of my Jewish students) can boost the immune system and kill bacterial pneumonia.
The working girls of the London streets, then as now, put in a lot of hours on their feet. A nice hot foot bath of orange peel and rose petals ease the pain of very narrow shoes with full heels.
Proper ladies wore whale bone corsets to give them that hour glass figure so beloved by our great grandparents. Of course it did nothing for the back, the ribs, or the intestines. Some women even had ribs removed so they could tighten the corset a little more. In the late Victorian age a new product helped with those aches and pains without the side effect of addiction. (Previously opium or laudanum was the main product for pain.) It was a French salve made from wintergreen and its salicylic acid components. American’s know it, as Ben Gay.
A common drink for the working man was called Grog. More common in the royal navy, grog was watered down rum with anything sweet thrown in. Although the origin is in dispute, this may have been the beginnings of the holiday drinks known as Tom and Jerry’s, and certainly hot buttered rum. For those who want to make their own hot buttered rum, take three tablespoons soft butter, add two heaping teaspoons brown sugar, a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon, and pinch of powdered ginger and allspice. Mix well. Add a teaspoon to a mug of hot water and a liberal splash of dark rum.
The character of Tiny Tim was based on Dickens’ brother who suffered a limp and died from a kidney ailment. If Tim had a kidney disease (which can cause a limp) the herbal medicines of the time might have saved him. Herbs such as marshmallow root, dandelion leaf and root, uva ursi (also known as Manzanita), and bilberry plus lots of clean water would have been used as kidney therapies. The largest problem with this therapy would have been finding lots of clean water. Water was a public health hazard.
For those few who still think Victorian times were genteel, religious, and conservative I suggest they study the large number of sex scandals caused by the aristocracy. The day after photography was invented someone created pornography. By the time Victoria had been on the throne for twenty years, pornography pictures had evolved into the eponymous French Postcard (Which is also a quite amusing stage show at the Dickens’ Faire. Adults only). While the common folk were warned away from cheap entertainment such as music halls, the rich could and often did have sex shows at their homes and clubs. As long as naked models did not move, it was considered art. Child prostitution was rampant throughout London. For an interesting novel on the topic, I suggest Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard.
While the poor were told not to use strong drink but to relax with tea, the wealthy relaxed with tea brandy and opium. Opium was sold along the docks by the pipe full. It was the Victorian equivalent of the crack house minus the poor.
Most of the tweakers I help are getting off of meth and not opium. I would prefer opium addicts as they tend to be less explosive and it’s easier to dodge their punches. To help opium addicts I would suggest a change of diet, heavy in diuretics, such as celery, cucumbers, and iron, such as stinging nettle and raw carrots.
Photos of the time show London crowded with carriages, sometimes three to four deep along the curbs. Parking was at a premium even then. Cabmen were even less polite in those days and got into fisticuffs for fares and prime parking spots. Private carriages, more rare than you might suspect, had to make due. There were no handicapped stickers for the many wounded soldiers of Victoria’s wars.
But for the weekends before Christmas, I prefer our make-believe London. My daughter will sing with the Coventry Carolers, her parents will take in a few shows at the Victoria and Albert Theatre, we will have high tea in the afternoon, be serenaded by singing chimney-sweeps, stroll down to the “docks” and hear bawdy sailor songs, and eat handmade chocolates, meat pies, and buy holiday knick-knacks for friends and family. Though the entire event is indoors, with a bit of imagination you can feel the chilly London air (quite similar to San Francisco), and smell the coal smoke along with cinnamon and sugared almonds toasted outside of Fezziwigs warehouse.
It’s our family tradition to take my mother-in-law (who will celebrate her 90th birthday next year), as her parents were born at the end of the Victorian age before immigrating to Canada. She enjoys the shows and the dancing and we enjoy her handicapped parking pass. We justify it this way: If Tiny Tim had had one, he’d have used it.
As in all things, moderation and knowledge is suggested in the use of herbal remedies. Please contact an herbalist or knowledgeable physician concerning herbal treatments.
