ABSTRACT
Girls wishing to make themselves attractive to young men and to be courted by them would often consult the local wise woman and ask for a love potion, ointment or lotion to improve their looks. A popular Cambridgeshire potion was tea or milk in which was dissolved a pinch of Dragon’s Blood. In the homes of more prosperous farmers who did not need, on financial grounds, so urgently to get their daughters off their hands, bundling was done by stealth and without the knowledge or connivance of the girl’s parents. The young man, after spending the evening with the young woman and her parents, would get his coat and, after bidding everyone good night, set off apparently for home. A Cambridgeshire belief held until late in the last century was that possession of a caul bestowed the gift of oratory. Lawyers, therefore, were anxious to obtain one and often advertised for one in national and local newspapers, offering good prices.
