In the Jura district of France, in Franche-Comte, the herb is supposed to mitigate
grief, mental and bodily, and Pepys in his Diary says: 'Between Gosport and
Southampton we observed a little churchyard where it was customary to sow all the
graves with Sage.'

The following is a translation of an old French saying:
'Sage helps the nerves and by its powerful might
Palsy is cured and fever put to flight,'


Gerard says:
'Sage is singularly good for the head and brain, it quickeneth the senses and memory,
strengtheneth the sinews, restoreth health to those that have the palsy, and taketh
away shakey trembling of the members.'
He shared the popular belief that it was efficacious against the bitings of serpents, and
says:
'No man need to doubt of the wholesomeness of Sage Ale, being brewed as it should
be with Sage, Betony, Scabious, Spikenard, Squinnette (Squinancywort) and Fennell
Seed.'
Many kinds of Sage have been used as substitutes for tea, the Chinese having been
said to prefer Sage Tea to their own native product, at one time bartering for it with
the Dutch and giving thrice the quantity of their choicest tea in exchange.

It is recorded that George Whitfield, when at Oxford in 1733, lived wholesomely, if sparingly, on a diet of Sage Tea, sugar and coarse bread. Balsamic Sage,
S.grandiflora, a broad-leaved Sage with many-flowered whorls of blossoms, used to be preferred to all others for making tea. An infusion of Speedwell (Veronica officinalis),

Sage and Wood Betony is said to make an excellent beverage for breakfast, as a substitute for tea,
Speedwell having somewhat the flavour of Chinese green tea.

In Holland the leaves of S. glutinosa, the yellow-flowered Hardy Sage, both flowers andfoliage of which exhale a pleasant odour, are used to give flavour to country wines,
and a good wine is made by boiling with sugar, the leaves and flowers of another
Sage, S. sclarea, the Garden Clary.

The latter is known in France as 'Toute bonne' -for its medicinal virtues.