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If I may make so bold as to comment on this thread, unclear as some of it is to me because I've been away for months & missed all the mails till yesterday: lavender is anti-bacterial and - to quote a useful website on aromatherapy - "the laborers working in the lavender fields and gardeners tending herb gardens and tanners and glove-makers who used essential oils to perfume fine leather escaped from the plague unhurt while their masters perished! We know what ancestors didn't - these aromatic plants are all powerful bactericides and that some of them are also anti-viral agents." So women who sniffed handkerchiefs impregnated with lavender oil etc were practising medicine, not just being "lady-like" or masking smells. I often sniff a combination of lavender, teetree & eucalyptus to alleviate bronchial and sinusitis problems. As pharmaceutic companies become more & more overbearing & demanding, we will all have to learn to make use of herbs etc, even against the resistance of the medical profession. Best Martin Tina Bass wrote: > >And thanks for sharing the story of your >great-grandmother, it was vivid, I'd forgotten how my >own great-grandmother used to rely on talcum powder >and handkerchiefs!, > >- Lily of the Valley or Lavender were the scents she preferred. Both of >them a hangover from Victorian times and earlier I think. Lavender - I >believe - was used to mask the smell of death during plague times. I never >really understood the handkerchief thing but I guess it relates to being a >lady, appropriatedly dressed and prepared for anything. >........ >- Not at all. Thanks for sharing the story of the 'witch'. It made >me smile because I have a neighbour who seems very similar. She has herbs >growing wild all over the place, lots of cats etc. I wonder what the >children at the end of the street think about her. > >Regards > >Tina > > > -- M.J.Walker - no blog - no webpage - no idea Nous ne faisons que nous entregloser. - Montaigne