I am Mistress Davies, or Nanny Weatherwax.

 They call me the wise-woman,  but in reality a  rich household such as that  of Lord Thomas Burgh would  probably not have had a wise-woman. The wise-woman’s  role in medicine was within the  villages, amongst the ordinary folk who could not afford the services of  a trained physician or surgeon.  But, there would probably have been a part of the household that functioned as a fore-runner to the ‘stillroom’ which,  50 or so years later, most Tudor households had.

So what do I do?  I make medicines, “simples” for the most part, the more complex (and therefore more expensive) medicines I leave to the physician and apothecary.  I do have, in my care, some of these, for use by the steward, the lord, his lady and their immediate family.  I take care not to encroach on the domain of the physicians and surgeons, who balance the body’s humours using astrology, urology, cautery and bloodletting, although, like everyone, I have a basic knowledge of them.

 

I deal with the minor ailments, cuts, bruises, brennes (burns), scalds, sprains, unbecomes (skin complaints), botches (boils) and wems (spots), kernals (tonsillitis), kibes (ulcerated chilblains), bolnungs (swellings/bulgings) and morphews (ulcers).   Broken bones are set by the barber-surgeon or sometimes the local blacksmith as generally speaking, I don’t have the strength to this. It’s the same for toothache – I don’t pull teeth, although I have remedies for the ache of a tooth, and to rid a tooth of worms.

 I keep a good stock of linen and wool for tents, (bandages and dressings), some with treatments dried into them.  I heat pine resin until it melts, and put it  onto dressings, which  then dry - ready for use at a later time.

 Illnesses such as measles, whooping cough, rubella, and such like,  rarely affect adults as  most people were exposed to them in childhood, but that still leaves fevers, bloody menyson (dysentery) quartern fever, influenza and other such pestilence to be dealt with.  They can strike at any time of year, although each ailment is more common at certain times, late winter sees the  very young and very old  stricken with illnesses, such as Influenza - it is very common and often lethal, to them.  While Spring  brings fevers and all manner of disease  to all, just when food is at its scarcest, especially for the poor, until the new crops grow. The  malaria related  type fevers continue until the weather cools in autumn.

 We live in dread of the The Great  Pestilence, (later called the Black Death), not just because of its virulence and death rate but because it kept coming back.  After the initial outbreak of 1347-51 plague  outbreaks struck England regionally and nationally 14 times, right up to  1429, (that was in  my father’s lifetime).  There were, (and still are), many treatments, superstitions, and prayers but nothing worked. Hopefully we will not see that pestilence again.

 Therefore I must keep a wide range of herbs and plants, and because many are seasonal, I must pick them at their best and dry them to last over the winter months. I use roots, leaves, stems, flowers, seeds, fruits, nuts, fungi,  and barks. Those that do not dry well, must be made into syrups,  tinctures,  and oils. 

 Late spring, into summer is a very busy time, many plants and herbs are ready to harvest, my helpers and I are often up before dawn to pick and cut plants whilst the dew is still on them, they  are better that way.  Sometimes we have to search for what we need, and walk a goodly distance before finding it.  Some plants though, are grown commercially, and these we buy, pennyroyal and meadowsweet for example.  Many are in our medicinal herb garden,  and others in the kitchen herb garden but more  grow in water meadows alongside the river Trent just outside town and others on the hills, the Lincolnshire Wolds over towards Caistor and beyond,  at least half a days walk, so for that we set out when the monks celebrate prime, well before dawn.

 Once I have my herbs, I decide what to do with them.  Most are dried and stored.  Some are soaked in oil – “Sage and parsley soaked in  olive oyle till it be thick and grene is good for sharp pains in the joints and aching”, it is used warm and gently rubbed onto the skin.  Chardequince, is a syrup made from quinces  and honey, but if you can afford it, sugar makes  better, this is good for all manner of illness, especially constipation and coughs.   

 My small stills, I use to make alcohol.  By boiling wine in a pot and catching the vapour in  my alembic, droplets form, and if you catch them  from the spout, the alcohol you get can be used to make medicine.  Take the liquid and “add to it what you will, put it in a join pot (jar with lid or stopper) and keep it warm for several weeks, turning it every day then strain it and keep, it will be good for a year”  Using the same process with water and herb or flower I can make herbal waters. If I boil urine I can make ammonia  and salt petre.

 Sometimes I bury stacked pots in the woods or a dung heap – the gentle warmth over many weeks brings  forth (sweats out)  the oils and juices from even the toughest root or bark.

 I make salves and ointments using fine oils for the higher echelons of the household – for the lower ranks I use, animal fats, lard, goose grease, butter.  These are best made as required, in small amounts as they do not keep well, for example, rank, stale goose grease stinks greatly.

 Poultices, compresses and plasters, also need to be made fresh each time.

 I can make pills, some are dried and keep well others must be made fresh. Confections though, keep well, for example, honey, cinnamon and horehound, cooked and then cooled, hardens, you can then suck  pieces of it and they are good for the  cough or sore throat.

 Only my most senior assistant, Mistress Footitt, is entrusted with gathering and preparing those substances and plants that are poisonous,   great care must be taken when using hemlock, henbane, woodbine, black poppy, nightshade, cockle (ergot), foxglove, white bryony, monkshood and pennyroyal.

 Some of these are used in medicines but I also use them to make pesticides and vermicides.  I make many small bags to put amongst the linens and clothes, in them I put dried pennyroyal (ants and moths hate it), lavender, rosemary and mint. Pennyroyal and meadowsweet are good for the floors, one deters vermin and pests - the other smells sweet. To be rid of vermin, Wolfsbane (monkshood) and bread soaked in milk is left out for the mice and rats, it works well but beware that hound or child do not drink this for it will kill them.   

…..

 Sometimes I am called upon to be midwife, this is a great responsibility, for if child or mother ails or dies it is often thought to be the fault of the midwife.  I must keep a priest close at hand, a child must be christened straight away if it ails. I am allowed to christen a child  but only in direst need. 

 I can hasten labour that is late in coming, but once it is begun, mother and child are in God’s hands, in reality (as medieval midwife)  I can  do little to help - turning a breeched child and aiding the actual delivery, administering a fortified wine, burning the correct herbs for fumigation,  make her (mother to be) take a steam bath, and knowing the right charms and prayers to say. Other remedies available and recommended in writings must  be used as a last resort,  for the desperate, as  they are rather brutal I think. 

 Caesareans, (cutting open the mother), are not permitted, unless to try and save a live child from a dead mother, a very risky venture for the midwife, leaving her vulnerable to murder charges as death was difficult to diagnose quickly and accurately. 

  

 The ordeal of medieval childbirth was not a private affair, especially for persons of higher status, there would be more than one midwife, and witnesses to attest the child was ‘indeed of the mother’ and not smuggled in, perhaps to ensure a male child and heir.

 St Margaret of Antioch, is the patron saint of midwives, and I direct my prayers for mother and child to her, and to the Virgin Mary.