Ive just been on a trip to the bigsmoke, where i scoured op shops and second hand bookshops. I found this gem by Rudyard Kippling, which is a tale of two children, Dan and Una, who Pan / Puck gives the ability 'To see what they should see and hear what they should hear, though it should have happened three thousand year'. Translated that means Robin Goodfellow introduces them to people from the past, including herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, although the deal is that after, they will forget doing so. The tale begins with an ode to nature written thus....
Take of English earth as much
As either hand might rightly clutch
In the taking of it breathe
Prayer for all who lie beneath-
Not the great nor well bespoke,
but the mere uncounted folk
Of whose life and death is none
Report or lamentation.
Lay that earth upon thy heart,
And thy sickness shall depart!
It shall sweeten and make whole
Fevered breast and festered soul;
It shall mightily restrain
Over-busy hand and brain;
It shall ease thy mortal strife
'Gainst the immortal woe of life,
Till thyself restored shall prove
By what grace the heavens do move.
Take of English flowers these-
Springs full-faced primroses,
Summers wild-hearted rose,
Autumns wall-flower of the close,
And, thy darkness to illume,
Winter's bee thronged ivy-bloom.
Seek and serve them where they bide
From Candlemas to Christmas-tide.
For these simples used aright
Shall restore a failing sight.
These shall cleanse and purify
Webbed and inward turning eye;
These shall show thee treasure hid,
thy familiar fields amid,
At thy threshhold, on thy hearth,
Or about the daily path;
And reveal (which is thy need)
Every man a king indeed!
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