The only reliable clues available about Anne Wheathill’s life are those contained in her work, published in 1584. She describes herself as a gentlewoman, unmarried and a Protestant. She also refers to herself as poor and it has been suggested that she was one of a handful of women in Elizabeth I’s reign who attempted to earn money by writing. A handfull of holesome (though homelie) hearbs is an example of the English Reformer’s efforts to revise the Roman Catholic primers and Books of Hours to satisfy the private devotional needs of a Protestant middle class. Although Anne Wheathill apologises for her inexperience and lack of learned counsel, her text requires no apology for reprinting in this facsimile edition. It is the work of someone who has mastered the cadence of the best English religious prose of her age.

Selected and Introduced by Patrick Cullen