Percy B. Green, who penned "A History of Nursery Rhymes" (1899), wrote:
In 1601 a charm in general esteem against lightning was a laurel leaf…
Reach the Bays and Wear One
Nursery Charm
Reach the bays*, and wear one.
I'll tie a garland here about his head,
Twill keep my boy from lightning.
Notes
*Or laurel leaves
Green wrote later, "Even Tiberius Cæsar wore a chaplet of laurel leaves about his neck. Pliny reported that 'laurel leaves were never blasted by lightning'."
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