My novel The Spyders of Burslem features the last of the ‘cunning’ men, Jimmy Tunnicliffe, at the end of the 1860s. I’m pleased to discover that there was a real if rather more upmarket equivalent to Jimmy Tunnicliffe in Burslem and, by the looks of it, at more or less about the right time. Evidently there was a ‘Botanic Institute’ herbalist on The Sytch (which also appears in the novel), by the name of Ree Dar or Reedar.

If he could get out to country patients (see the bottom of the flyer) evidently he kept a horse and gig. Which would make sense, since he would also need to have a means of getting out of Stoke to gather herbs in their season. Though such people also had ‘gatherers’ I seem to recall.