I’ve mentioned before how the
spheres of magic and science often overlapped in the past. Early herbals had
their occult elements, with plants classified by their planetary or zodiacal
properties – Nicholas Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (1653) includes this information
in the descriptions. As Enlightenment values spread across Europe, these
superstitions were relegated in favour of a more scientific approach. New
herbals were published, and the story of one of these is a fascinating tale of
poverty, loyalty, debt and death. It begins in Scotland.
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A Nievve Herball - Robert Dodoens - 1578 |
Elizabeth Blachrie was
born into a wealth Aberdeen family at some time between 1707 and 1713 (the
records are vague). She secretly married her second cousin, Alexander
Blackwell, who practiced medicine in Aberdeen, but there were disputes about
the validity of his qualifications, so the couple fled to London. Alexander
became involved with the printing trade, as a proofreader, and he opened his
own print shop in the Strand but the tight trade restrictions brought him into
conflict with the powerful guilds. He was forced into debt, convicted, and sentenced to two
years in Highgate Prison, leaving Elizabeth penniless and in desperate poverty.
Elizabeth had had some artistic training in Aberdeen, and she set about
producing botanical illustrations to which her husband, from his cell, added
medicinal information. She approached Sir Hans Sloane and Dr Richard Mead, who
encouraged her, and she gained access to the Chelsea Physic Garden, where she
drew the plants from life. Elizabeth drew, engraved and coloured four plates a
week, which she sold, together with a page of accompanying text, in weekly
instalments, over 125 weeks. A bound volume of 250 plates was issued in 1737
and a second in 1739. We can see the quality of Elizabeth’s illustrations if we
compare them with those from earlier herbals.
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Illustration from Culpeper's Complete Herbal |
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Illustration from Dodoen's A Nievve Herbal |
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Illustration from Blackwell's A Curious Herbal 1737 |
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Title Page - Elizabeth Blackwell - A Curious Herbal 1737 |
‘A Curious Herbal, containing
five hundred cuts of the most useful plants which are now used in the Practise
of Physick, to which is added a short description of ye plants and their common
uses in Physick’ was a moderate success, and the profits bought Alexander’s
freedom from prison, although further debts meant that the copyright was
eventually sold. Some of the plates were pirated in inferior versions and
Alexander took great satisfaction in prosecuting those very same printers
responsible for his imprisonment.
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Illustration from Blackwell's A Curious Herbal 1737 |
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Example of a text page from Blackwell's A Curious Herbal 1737 |
The volumes were republished over the years,
in 1739, 1751 and 1782, and later editions appeared on the continent. Alexander
Blackwell came to the attention of James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, and he
became director of improvements on site at the Duke’s new mansion, but was
dismissed and left under a cloud.
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Illustration from Blackwell's A Curious Herbal 1737 |
At the same time he wrote A new method of
improving Cold, Wet and Clayey Ground which brought him to the attention of
the Swedish Ambassador, who invited him to Sweden in 1742, leaving his wife and
child in London. He passed himself as a physician, and attended King Frederick,
but there were accusations of quackery, and he fell back on agriculture as a
secondary career, publishing An essay on the Improvement of Swedish
Agriculture in 1745. He took charge of a model farm at Ållestad, which he
mismanaged, further souring his relationship with Swedish royalty. He became
involved in court intrigues, ill advisedly, and may have been in on a plot to
place the Duke of Cumberland on the Swedish throne (or he may simply have been
a victim of court jealousy). He was imprisoned on treason charges and was
sentenced to death. On 9th August 1747, just as Elizabeth departed London on
her way to join him, Blackwell went to the Swedish executioner. One story,
probably apocryphal, is that he put his head on the wrong side of the block,
and apologised, saying that this was the first time he been beheaded. His
astonishingly loyal wife then dropped from history, and may have ended her days
as a midwife. There is even some dispute about the year of her death, but it
seems likely she died in 1758, and is buried at Chelsea Old Church, near to her
old friend Sir Hans Sloane.
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Constance Smedley - A Curious Herbal - 1922 |
In the 1920s, the playwright Constance Smedley
moved to Chelsea and heard the story of Elizabeth Blackwell, which inspired her
to write a verse-play The Curious Herbal (1922), honouring this
exemplary artist. It tells how Elizabeth went to the Physic Garden and won over
the misogynistic head gardener Miller with the quality of her illustrations and
devotion to her imprisoned husband, thereby gaining access to his greenhouses
and rare plants. There are no records of the play being performed since the
1940s.
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