Chapter One

Appears in

Fool's Gold

By Sam Bilton

Published 2022

About

1 In my youth this game was known as Chinese Whispers, but I have chosen to use the more acceptable modern name here. The principle of the game, however, is the same.
2 Harley MS 913, British Library. ‘The Land of Cockayne’ was a poem about an imaginary world believed to have been written in the early fourteenth century by a Franciscan monk. This fantasy contains, among other things, a house made of pie and cake, and a spice tree:
- In its garden is a tree,
- A very pleasant sight to see:
- Ginger and galingale the roots,
- And zedoary all the shoots,
- The flowers are mace, quite excellent,
- Cinnamon gives the bark its scent,
- Cloves are the fruit, whose taste is rare.
- There’s no lack of cubebs there.
3 Morant (1748), p. 543; ‘Medieval Walden’, Visit Saffron Walden <https://www.visitsaffronwalden.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/TIC_MW_8ppDL_V6_WEB.pdf>
4 Cromarty (1967), p. 109.
5 Stacy (1973) pp. 1-2; Evans & Starte (2009).
6 ‘William Harrison’, The Hundred Parishes Society <http://www.hundredparishes.org.uk/people/detail/william-harrison>
7 Harrison (1994), p. 355.
8 Ibid., p. 348.
9 Crone (2020).
10 Hakluyt (1589), pp. 299-300.
11 Mandeville (1900), quotes from p. 5 and p. 86. Tortouse was the name for the port city of Tartus in modern day Syria.
12 Webb (2002), p.20, 78; Sumption (2003), p. 239-243; Essex Record Office, Will of John Bataill, Reference D/DBa T2/11.
13 Webb (2002), pp.78-113; Sumption (2003), pp. 244-45.
14 Webb (2002), pp.114-122; ‘Saffron from San Gimignano: the precious flowers that built the towers’, UNESCO, <https://visitworldheritage.com/en/eu/saffron-from-san-gimignano-the-precious-flowers-that-built-the-towers/521a62e8-89c1-4c01-b881-9d098588c4de> ; Riley (2007), pp.463-6.
15 Toussaint-Samat (2008), pp.518-23; Sevilla (2019), pp.48-49; ‘The English Version of the Book V (Codex Calixtinus)’, Codex Calixtinus <https://codexcalixtinus.es/the-english-version-of-the-book-v-codex-calixtinus/>; Webb (2002), p.23 adds: ‘The Compostela pilgrimage may well have benefited from the increasing European publicity given to the wars of reconquest which were intermittently waged by the Christian kings of Spain against the occupying Muslims. Those who joined in the Spanish struggle were awarded the spiritual privileges of “crusaders”’.
16 Webb (2002) pp.143-4; Sumption (2003), pp. 260-6. Furnival (1867), p.60.
17 Wey (1857), p. 5.
18 Stacy (1973), p. 1.
19 Sowan (2018), pp. 50-1. Mills (1991), pp. xi, xii, 98. To further muddy the waters there is a village in Cambridgeshire (arguably a more logical place for the Romans to have grown saffron) called Croydon. This village is listed as Crauuedene in the Domesday Book which means ‘valley frequented by crows’.
20 Theophrastus (1926), p. 337.
21 Pliny (1951), p. 185-189; Bird (2012), pp. 87-90. A samian vessel found at the upper end of the Walbrook valley contained a stamp which reads ‘Lucius lulus Senex’s saffron salve (crocodes) for granulation of the eye lids’ – evidently a very unpleasant eye disease in the Roman era which could lead to blindness. However, tests on colluyrium stamps from a late 2nd-early 3rd century grave near Lyon found no evidence of saffron in the ones stamped crocodes so perhaps ‘saffron’ only applies to the colour rather than the spice.
22 Edwards (1993), p. 11.
23 Cunliffe (1981), p. 97.
24 Cunliffe (1981), pp. 98-9.
25 Jashemski (1970-71), pp. 97-115. The line in Virgil’s poem ‘The crocus by Cilician field’ has been interpreted as referring to the saffron crocus.
26 Cunliffe (1981), pp. 104-7.
27 Cunliffe (1981), p.106; Bird (2012), pp. 87-90; Pliny (1951), p.183.
28 Schoff (1912), pp.31, 110-111; Miller (1969), pp. 201-207.
29 Harden (1962), pp.147, 162.
30 Harden (1962), pp. 170-1.
31 Edmonds (1868), p. 4
32 Thirsk (1997) p.7.
33 Thirsk (1997) pp. 16-8.
34 Wilson (1991), p. 19.
35 Bradley (1726), pp. 49-50. Saffron was definitely being grown in England long before Sir Walter Raleigh’s time.