Pastille

A pastille is a type of sweet or medicinal pill made of a thick liquid that has been solidified and is meant to be consumed by light chewing and allowing it to dissolve in the mouth. They are also used to describe certain forms of incense.

A pastille is also known as a "troche", or a medicated lozenge that dissolves like candy.

Origins

A pastille was originally a pill-shaped lump of compressed herbs, which was burnt to release its medicinal properties. Literary references to the burning of medicinal pastilles include the short story "The Birth-Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the poem "The Laboratory" by Robert Browning, and the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. They are also mentioned in the novel McTeague by Frank Norris, when the title character's wife burns them to mask an unpleasant odor in the couple's rooms. In Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, "a half-filled package of violet pastilles" are among the items found in Joel Cairo's pockets. They were also widely used during the eighteenth century in Western cultures to take herbal curatives and medicines, which eventually were developed into candies.

Pastille (horse)

Pastille (foaled 1819) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who won two British Classic Races. In a career which lasted from April 1822 until November 1824 she won eight of her thirteen races and was placed second or third in the other five. On her second racecourse appearance in she became the first filly to win the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and went on to win the Oaks Stakes at Epsom Downs Racecourse a month later. She won once as a four-year-old in 1823 and was unbeaten in three starts in 1824. After her retirement from racing she had some success as a broodmare.

Background

Pastille was a bay mare bred by her owner George FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton at his stud at Euston Hall in Suffolk. Her sire, Rubens was a successful racehorse, who at the time of Pastille's conception was covering mares at Newmarket at a fee of 25 guineas. He sired two other classic winning fillies in Landscape, who won the Oaks in 1816 and Pastille's contemporary and stable companion Whizgig. Rubens was champion sire in 1815, 1821 and 1822. Pastille's dam, Parasol was a daughter of Prunella, described as one of the most important broodmares in the history of the Thoroughbred breed, making her a half-sister to 1809 Derby winner Pope and the mares Pope Joan, Penelope and Prudence. Parasol was a top-class racemare who became a successful broodmare in her own right, producing, in addition to Pastille, the 2000 Guineas winner Pindarrie and the leading stallion Partisan. Grafton sent the filly to be trained at Newmarket by Robert Robson, the so-called "Emperor of Trainers".