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If a balance of the savoury and sweet aren’t the pick of the bunch for you, perhaps you might instead look a little closer to home. Fragrant cuttings from the garden can be gathered and dried throughout the year, with lavender, rose petals, rosemary, mint and lemon balm all capable of being put to good use around the home.
Tucked into tiny muslin bags, folded amongst freshly laundered linens or arranged into simple posies for the bedside, these fragrant botanicals offer an easy and enduring way to perfume the house. It is a practice that has been used domestically for centuries, long before scented candles and electric diffusers found their place upon our shelves.
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Our foremothers also understood and appreciated the pleasure of a sweet-smelling home. Throughout the Victorian period and well into the twentieth century, lavender bags were commonly found in linen cupboards and beneath pillows, whilst herbs such as rosemary and southernwood were valued as much for their fragrance as for their beauty in the garden. Small fabric sachets, often stitched from leftover scraps of cotton or linen, made thoughtful gifts and practical household comforts in equal measure.
Pomanders, too, have a surprisingly long history. Today we might picture an orange studded with cloves hanging by a ribbon at Christmastime, yet their origins stretch back much further. Early pomanders were ornamental containers filled with fragrant herbs, spices and resins, carried or hung within the home in the belief that pleasant scents helped purify the air. As fashions changed, the simpler orange-and-clove version became a familiar household favourite, proving that some traditions need very little to keep on going over the centuries.
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Pot pourri is equally worthy of honourable mention. Many of us remember bowls of dried petals and spices gracing sideboards and mantelpieces, peculiarly edible in appearance but definitely not so. Making your own remains happily straightforward, if ever you felt like undertaking a new easily adaptable, seasonal craft. Citrus peel, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon, lavender and rose petals can all be dried gradually and combined according to preference, creating a fragrance entirely your own. Part of the pleasure lies in tinkering to eventually land on the perfume that pleases your nose the most.
Worried about availability? During periods when imported perfumes were scarce or considered an unnecessary luxury, many households turned to what they could grow themselves, or what happened to be about. Garden flowers, herbs and dried peel provided enough fragrance to freshen drawers, scent linens and lend a welcoming air to the home. In these ways, scent-making can flourish through thrift and resourcefulness as much as abundance.
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Those wishing to venture a little further will also find no shortage of independent perfumers and botanical makers producing small-batch perfumes, scented oils and home fragrances inspired by the British countryside. Their work often celebrates the very ingredients many of us grow ourselves, proving that some of the most memorable scents begin in the garden rather than the department store.
I think that is what appeals most about scent, especially given how connected it is to memory and personal taste. If you give the matter even more attention, you'll begin to take even more pleasure in lavender beginning to flower, roses warmed by the afternoon sun, or mint all crushed, fresh, and tingly. Long before fragrance arrived in elegant bottles, it was airborne through open windows and found naturally throughout the home.
This article first appeared in an expanded form of Household Notes in In Bookish Company, my free fortnightly newsletter inspired by the parish magazines, Women’s Institute newsletters and community bulletins of years gone by. If you enjoy thoughtful writing on books, heritage, home, seasonal living and the quieter pleasures of everyday life, you are warmly invited to join us. Each issue is available to read free of charge here on my website and on my Substack, where you can also subscribe to receive future editions directly in your inbox.
Stay smelling sweet,
Chloe (Noted by Chloe)
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