Word of the Week: Simples

Physical herbs; also follies. He must go to Battersea, to be cut for the simples -- Battersea is a place famous for its garden grounds, some of which were formerly appropriated to the growing of simples for apothecaries, who at a certain season used to go down to select their stock for the ensuing year, at which time the gardeners were said to cut their simples; whence it became a popular joke to advise young people to go to Battersea, at that time, to have their simples cut, or to be cut for the simples.

From: Captain Grose's 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

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