Fairfax-Spencer Family Recipe Book

Items

• The Phisbillia watter to drink for the party

  A recipe for a fistula treatment; includes green broom and molasses.
• My Cousen Shirards Resept For A Dropsy

  A remedy for dropsy, also known as edema, the excessive build of fluid in the body. Includes brooklime, watercress, nettles, elder bark, scurvey grass, red dock roots, dwarf elder roots, green broom, ale, juniper berries, red gallingale root, and gention root.
• Fits of Mother & Confultions

  A medication to be taken by mothers experiencing convulsions comprised of senna, long pepper, anise seeds, licorice, elecampane, and white peony root; and boiled in sack (wine). Should be taken with honey and bread dipped in vinegar. An additional recipe with mercury plant, gerrymander, spearmint, fennel, liverwort, broom, wormwood, and betony is also given.
• Aneseclent Medcine [medicine] to disolve and bring away the Stone

  A medicinal preparation for dissolving stones (probably kidney stones) made from powder from oyster shells, eggshells, ale, white wine. The resulting medicine should be taken with a posset; directions are also given for a liquid made of boiled nettled and broom to aid the medicine that the powder can be taken in.
• A Docter [text loss] Medisin [text loss]

  Describes a recipe for a medicinal drink using a variety of herbs, berries, and roots, steeped in ale. The drink is indicated for daily use or as-needed, though the purpose is unclear due to missing pieces of the manuscript.