Author Archives: Deborah Naugle

Spring Dandelions

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THINGS TO DO IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND

If you’re looking for something creative and fun to do while safe at home this spring check this out…

yellow-dandelionDid you know that dandelions are not native to the Americans? They were brought here by Europeans during the seventeenth century. During that time, they were thought to possess medicinal properties.

John Gerards Herbal, published in 1597, wrote of dandelions “upon every stalk standeth a flower greater than that of Succory, but double, and thick set together, of colour yellow, and sweet in smell, which is turned into a round downy blowball, that is carried away with the wind.”
The supposed medicinal properties? “Boiled, it strengthens the weak stomach, and eaten raw it stops the belly, and helps the dysentery, especially being boiled with lentils; the juice drunk is good against the involuntary effusion of seed; boiled in vinegar, it is good against the pain that troubles some in making of water. A decoction made of the whole plant helps the yellow jaundice.”
We do not endorse plant medicinals in 2020.
But guess what? We do have another craft for one of those toilet paper rolls.

Supplies:

Toilet paper roll (empty)
Paint (be creative, this can be any color)
Paper
Scissors

Instructions:

Take an empty t.p. roll

Cut slits about one inch up from the bottom and all the way around. These will be creating your “puffs” so make them around 3 cm. apart

Once finished, separate the slits

Put the paint onto a paper plate, or something that you can really spread it around on

Dip the tp roll into the paint (slit side) then make quick little marks on your paper

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Shuffleboard

Shuffleboard was also popular in the early American colonies. Bridget Bishop was the first of nineteen people executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. She was somewhat disreputable as she operated taverns which had frivolous games like shuffleboard. So, clearly shuffleboard was well known in England and America from before and after the founding of the Maryland colony. It is not surprising that Cecil Calvert would participate in what was then a relatively popular game. Most importantly, Charles seems to have found a gift his father appreciated.

Silas Hurry, Curator of Collections and Archaeological Lab Director shares more details about gaming.

"The Courtyard of an Inn with a Game of Shuffleboard" Adriaen van Ostade, 1677


“The Courtyard of an Inn with a Game of Shuffleboard” Adriaen van Ostade, 1677

“In 1672, Charles Calvert wrote to his father, Cecil Calvert the Lord Baltimore that he was sending him a gift. “I doe Intend to send yor Lopp … as much Planke of Blacke Wallnutt as will make a Shouell Board Table, 30 foot Longe with stuffe of the same wood for a frame which I shall present yor Lopp with.” About a year later in another letter to his father, Charles was “very glad to understand from yor Lopp the Blackwallnut planke has made so noble a shovell board Table.”

While we tend to think of shuffleboard as a geriatric activity undertaken deck side or perhaps a game one sees in a bar, it has a long history in Europe even before the Maryland colony is formed. If one can believe “the Google,” shuffle board was widespread enough that Henry VIII actually regulated it, banning commoners from playing the game. Henry apparently also lost money while gambling on the game so that there is a reference of royal expenses for 1532 which shows a payment from the Privy Purse of £9, “Paied to my lord Wylliam for that he wanne of the kinges grace at shovillaborde.” Shuffleboard also shows up in Samuel Pepys’ diary of April 5, 1665 – “at Hackney, did there eat some pullets we carried with us, and some things of the house; and after a game or two at shuffle-board, home”