From A Garden of Herbs (1921)

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"If you will have the leaves of the parcelye grow crisped, then before the sowing of them stuffe a tennis ball with the sedes and beat the same well against the ground whereby the seedes may be a little bruised or when the parcelye is well come up go over the bed with a waighty roller whereby it may so presse the leaves down or else tread the same downe under thy feet." A Crete Herball, 1539.

Hercules is said to have selected parsley to form the first garlands he wore. The Greeks had a great veneration for parsley, and of it the victor's crown was made at the Isthmian games; and Grecian gardens were often bordered with parsley, and rue, and sprigs of this herb were strewn on the dead. Canon Ellacombe says that parsley has the curious botanic history that no one can tell what is its native country. "Probably the plant has been so altered by cultivation as to have lost all likeness to its original self." It is said that Charlemagne having once tasted a cheese flavoured with parsley seeds, ordered two cases of these cheeses to be sent to him yearly.

Dethicke gives the amateur gardener this advice: "To make the seedes appear more quickly steep them in vinegar and strew the bed with the ashes of bean-water with the best aqua vitae, and then cover the beds with a piece of woolen cloth, and the plants will begin to appear in an hour." Then he adds: "he must take off the cloth so that they may shoot up the higher to the wonder of all beholders!"

In the southern states of America the negroes consider it unlucky to transplant parsley from the old home to the new, and in England old-fashioned gardeners will often tell you they never transplant parsley, as it would bring misfortune on every one in the house. It is said that parsley seed goes seven times to the Devil and back before it germinates, and that is why it is so slow in coming up!

Formerly parsley roots were much eaten, and the young roots are still recommended by modern herbalists.

A SAUCE FOR A ROSTED RABBIT USED TO KING HENRY THE EIGHT. Take a handfull of washed Percely, mince it small, boyle it with butter and verjuice upon a chafing-dish, season it with suger and a little pepper grosse beaten; when it is ready put in a fewe crummes of white bread amongst the other : let it boyle againe till it be thicke, then laye it in a platter, like the breadth of three fingers, laye of each side one rested conny and so serve them. The Treasurie of Hidden Secrets and Commodious Conceits, by John Partridge, 1586.