"He doubted if there was a finer Benedictine garden in the whole kingdom, or one better supplied with herbs both good for spicing meats and also invaluable as medicine. The main orchards and lands of the Shrewsbury abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul lay on the northern side of the road, outside the monastic enclave, but here, in the enclosed garden within the walls, close to the abbot's fishponds and the brook that worked the abbey mill, [he] ruled unchallenged. The herbarium in particular was his kingdom, for he had built it up gradually through fifteen years of labour, and added to it many exotic plants of his own careful raising, collected in a roving youth that had taken him as far afield as Venice, and Cyprus and the Holy Land."
Do come and join the Cornflower Book Group as we meet a distinguished herbalist!
Ah, immediate recognition!! Loved the books and collected them all years ago; we even went on the Shrewsbury Quest on a visit home in about 1996, which was great fun for the kids...!! I was just thinking on Friday that I ought to reread them all ;))
Posted by: MelD | 05 February 2011 at 08:28 PM
Excellent!
Posted by: Cornflower | 05 February 2011 at 10:04 PM
Ah ha! Rollicking good series! I'm not a huge mystery fan but Brother Cadfael won me over a dozen years ago.
Posted by: Fiberjoy | 07 February 2011 at 03:16 AM
I, too, am a big fan. I found them by mistake when the Emelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters were next to them on the shelf.
Posted by: LoriAngela | 07 February 2011 at 04:54 AM