Document of the Month
June 2009
Recipe to make pine water, 18th century
Reference: DD/N/217/2
Homemade remedies were very popular in the days before comprehensive medical care was available. Often the women of the household would be responsible for making up these remedies and administering to the sick. This recipe to make pine water is very detailed, requiring a large number of ingredients, in quite considerable quantities.
The recipe requires four large nutmegs to be added. At one time nutmeg was considered to cause premature delivery of babies, so it is interesting to see it added to a recipe which is supposed to prevent miscarrying.
This recipe comes from the Nevile of Thorney collection. The Nevile family lived at Thorney Hall near Newark, and the estate was held continuously by the family since the 16th century. The collection contains the usual family and estate papers such as deeds of title to property in various locations, rentals, accounts, but also interesting personal items such as the Midshipman's Journals of Christopher Nevile (1783-1788) and the military papers of his father Colonel George Nevile (1778-1780).
See the recipe in more detail here [PDF 1942KB] 
Read a transcript here [PDF 14KB]
The catalogue of the Nevile of Thorney collection is available to search online via Access to Archives.
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