Herb Strewer

The earliest recorded Herb Strewer was Bridget Rumney,[2] who held the post from 1660 to 1671 and received an annual salary of £24, as well as two yards of superfine scarlet cloth for livery, as did all of her successors.

For his coronation in 1820, George IV appointed an old friend, Anne Fellowes, to the post, and she and her six attendants scattered flowers and herbs along the carpet of Westminster Abbey.

[3] Fellowes applied for the job again on the occasion of the coronation of William IV but, owing to cutbacks in the ceremony, her services were not required.

Neither Queen Victoria nor any subsequent British monarchs have appointed a Herb Strewer for their coronations; however the Fellowes to this day claim this position for the eldest unmarried daughter of the family.

[citation needed] Thomas Tusser, a regular at the court of Henry VIII, lists twenty-one strewing herbs in his 1557 instructional poem, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie: basil, lemon balm, chamomile, costmary, cowslips, daisies, fennel, germander, hyssop, lavender, spike lavender, cotton lavender, marjoram, maudeline (sweet yarrow), pennyroyal, roses, red mints, sage, tansy, violets, and winter savory.