23 Nov 2023
Downstairs, beneath the shop front, away from daylight and distractions, William Penhaligon submerges himself in what feels like another world. A world in which all the ills of the day have a remedy. He has at his fingertips the possibility to brew potions so powerful and remedies so revealing...
The laboratory is lit by candlelight. Behind him, rare books on botany fill the shelves. Encyclopaedic classifications of herbs, plants, flowers, offering all manner of recipes and prescriptions to cure – or procure – altered states. Aphrodisiacs. Hallucinogens. Their natural powers were mesmerising. Seeking the Divine through the Mysteries of Nature is open at his desk. This, dear reader, is William Penhaligon’s secret workshop.
The transformative power of his fragrant concoctions was yet to be correctly dosed, yet to be perfectly understood. And so he endeavoured, privately but with devotion. Once perfected there was no going back – the world would be changed once and for all. A force for good? (Or, if incorrectly applied, something more menacing?). William Penhaligon laboured for his legacy to be delightful, one to cure all ills, one that he and future generations would be rightly proud!
One is about to discover the result of his travails...
