St. David’s Day

“The Welshmen did good service in a garden where the leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps.” Henry V, Act IV, scene vii. Patron saint of Wales, St. David, is said to have been a sixth-century Celtic priest active in Cumbria. But why a leek? One tale has it that in about 540, the Saxon invaders were advancing to the Welsh border. Uniforms being unknown in those far-off days, St. David advised his Welsh warriors to wear leeks in their caps to distinguish them from their foes. Another story has it that the battle between Saxon and Welsh was fought over a field of leeks, perhaps under the leadership of Cadwalladr when he defeated the Saxons near Hethfield, or Hatfield, Yorkshire in 633. Needless to say, this is denied – by English historians.

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The Romans are believed to have introduced the leek, Allium porrum, into the British Isles, following in the booted footsteps of their caligatae or footsloggers. After all, Nero himself, so mighty a consumer of the succulent vegetable in an effort to improve his singing voice, that he was nicknamed Porrophagus, ‘the leek-eater’. At least so we are told by Prosper Montagne in his famed Larousse Gastronomique (1938). All were proceeded in their love of leeks by the Israelites. While domiciled in Egypt, they embraced that veggie popular with Pharaoh’s subjects along with cucumbers, melons, onions and garlic. Fleeing to the Promised Land, they wailed in the wilderness of their lack (Numbers 11:5). “Eat leeks in March and ransoms in May/And all the year after physicians may play” was a 17th-century proverb (ransoms are wild onions). Alas, for historical purists, today the daffodil is often chosen as a more decorative substitute and certainly easier for florists to retail. And the culture of leeks, especially enormous ones, seems to be more favoured in England. According to Roy Vickers in A Dictionary of Plant Lore (1995), the National Pot Leek Society, with 1,000 members now has branches from Scotland to Somerset. ‘David’ is pronounced Taffid in the Welsh dialect or, more familiarly, ‘Taffy,’ especially to the English. Indeed, the latter never seemed to tire of making derogatory remarks about their western neighbours. Quoth one in Shakespeare’s Henry V (Act IV, scene I): “Tell him I’ll knock his leek about his pate upon Saint Davy’s day.” Alas, faced with his Welsh foe, the boastful Brit was forced to eat his enemy’s leek – raw.