D A F F Y ' S  E L I X I R

History does not record what the Reverend Thomas Daffy got up to in Harby in 1666, but it must have been conduct unbecoming a clerical gentleman, because the Countess of Rutland (a prudish lady from all accounts) was so shocked that she had him transferred to Redmile, a much poorer living. 

Thomas Daffy had been Rector of Harby since 1617. He remained at Redmile until his death in 1680, so he must have lived to a great age, and no doubt he ascribed it to the concoction he was always making and advertising, his 'elixir salutis', known far and wide as 'Daffy's Elixir'.

Could it have been this which so incensed the Countess ? We have no idea, but we would dearly love to know the ingredients of this magic potion, for letters written in those days describe its effect on those who drank it as 'cheerful'. Daffy himself claimed that it would cure anything and everything! 

It was still being made in 1759, long after his death. In 1707 his daughter, Catherine, inserted an advertisement in a publication called 'The Postboy'. In it she stated that during her father's lifetime his elixir was also made and sold by her brother Daniel, a chemist in Nottingham, and that the secret of its preparation had likewise been imparted to a kinsman named Anthony Daffy. 

The advertisement was written in a very dull and prosy style. One wonders what form it would have taken today, and whether the Daffy family would have been prosecuted for false representation under the Trade Description Act. But even if it was not really a cure-all, a similar concoction would have a ready sale today. We should all like something to make us cheerful after viewing the nine o'clock news! 

Incidentally, Thomas Daffy's eldest son became headmaster of a Melton Mowbray school sometime after 1673, when he graduated at Cambridge. 

NORA BLAZE