GALL WASPS

responsible for the growths, known as galls, on DOG ROSES. These enjoyed a great reputation at one time. Often known as Briar-balls, they had a number of more picturesque names, such as Robin Redbreasts’s Cushions (Latham), or Robin’s Pillows, or Robin’s Pincushions (Page), as well as Canker-balls (Elworthy. 1888). They used to be sold by apothecaries to be powdered and taken to cure the stone, as a diuretic, and also for colic. Boiled up with black sugar, the result would be drunk for whooping cough. That is a gypsy remedy, but country people generally used to hang them round their necks as amulets against whooping cough (Grigson. 1955) (even merely hanging them about the house (Rolleston) for rheumatism (Bloom), or piles (Savage) ). Putting one under the pillow was a Norfolk way of curing cramp (Taylor). In Hereford and Worcester the gall was carried round in the pocket to prevent toothache (Leather), and Yorkshire schoolboys wore them as a charm against flogging (Gutch); that is why they were known as Savelick, or Save-whallop (Robinson), in that area. Gerard mentioned the galls, his reference being Pliny, and reckoned that, stamped with honey and ashes, it “causeth haires to grow which are fallen through the disease called Alopecia, or the Foxes Evill”.