From Medicine to Murder: How the Apothecary Garden Found Its Dark Side

Poison Garden gate Alnwick. By Steve F, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13596108

There’s something about the concept of a poison garden that either titillates or terrifies, depending on your preferences.
The UK’s most famous Poison Garden is at the Alnwick Garden. Its influence is so far-reaching that if you Google “poison garden”, it dominates the first several pages of results. So much so that I assumed the poison garden was an established concept in horticultural history. Not so, it turns out.
Yet it does descend from a historical gardening ideal – the physic garden.
You and I are going on a voyage of discovery in these gardens. Just be careful not to touch anything…

Folkore of Wales: The Skeleton Tree, Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyll

The plaster frieze at Y Sospan showing a tree with hanged people swinging from it.

Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyll, which means “The Hollow Oak, Haunt of Demons” or “The Blasted Oak of Spirits” was a real tree. Its story is dark and terrifying.

Gabarghichor: A Folktale from Bihar

Grass silhouetted against sunset. Photo by FAISAL AHMAD on Unsplash.

Galeej, a youth hailing from a low caste, got married to a woman of the same caste and equal status. She was from the neighbouring village. He brought his bride in a palanquin—a local band party in tow—and began living with her in a small hut in his village.

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