This article is adapted from the October 12, 2024, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here. In Guy Mannering, an 1815 Scottish novel by Sir Walter Scott, a mysterious fortune-teller named Meg Merrilies sings a charm of protection over the title character’s household. It begins with the names of four herbs: Trefoil, vervain, John’s wort, dill, Hinder witches of their will. Scott drew Meg’s song from the many prayer-charms that were popular in Early Modern Britain, when beliefs combined Christianity with pre-Christian herbal wisdom. These…
