The poet laureate, being a court official, was considered responsible for producing formal and appropriate verses on birthdays and state occasions; but his activity in this respect has varied, according to circumstances, and the custom ceased to be obligatory after Pye's death. Wordsworth stipulated, before accepting the honour, that no formal effusions from him should be considered a necessity; but Tennyson was generally happy in his numerous poems of this class. The emoluments of the post have varied; Ben Jonson first received a pension of 100 marks, and later an annual "terse of Canary wine." To Pye an allowance of £27 was made instead of the wine. Tennyson drew £72 a year from the lord chamberlain's department, and £27 from the lord steward's in lieu of the "butt of sack."
See Walter Hamilton's _Poets Laureate of England_ (1879), and his contributions to _Notes and Queries_ (Feb. 4, 1893).
LAUREL. At least four shrubs or small trees are called by this name in Great Britain, viz. the common or cherry laurel (_Prunus Laurocerasus_), the Portugal laurel (_P. lusitanica_), the bay or sweet laurel (_Laurus nobilis_) and the spurge laurel (_Daphne Laureola_). The first two belong to the rose family (_Rosaceae_), to the section _Cerasus_ (to which also belongs the cherry) of the genus _Prunus_.
The common laurel is a native of the woody and sub-alpine regions of the Caucasus, of the mountains of northern Persia, of north-western Asia Minor and of the Crimea. It was received into Europe in 1576, and flowered for the first time in 1583. Ray in 1688 relates that it was first brought from Trebizonde to Constantinople, thence to Italy, France, Germany and England. Parkinson in his _Paradisus_ records it as growing in a garden at Highgate in 1629; and in Johnson's edition of Gerard's _Herbal_ (1633) it is recorded that the plant "is now got into many of our choice English gardens, where it is well respected for the beauty of the leaues and their lasting or continuall greennesse" (see Loudon's _Arboretum_, ii. 717). The leaves of this plant are rather large, broadly lance-shaped and of a leathery consistence, the margin being somewhat serrated. They are remarkable for their poisonous properties, giving off the odour of bitter almonds when bruised; the vapour thus issuing is sufficient to kill small insects by the prussic acid which it contains. The leaves when cut up finely and distilled yield oil of bitter almonds and hydrocyanic (prussic) acid. Sweetmeats, custards, cream, &c., are often flavoured with laurel-leaf water, as it imparts the same flavour as bitter almonds; but it should be used sparingly, as it is a dangerous poison, having several times proved fatal. The first case occurred in 1731, which induced a careful investigation to be made of its nature; Schrader in 1802 discovered it to contain hydrocyanic acid. The effects of the distilled laurel-leaf water on living vegetables is to destroy them like ordinary prussic acid; while a few drops act on animals as a powerful poison. It was introduced into the British pharmacopoeia in 1839, but is generally superseded by the use of prussic acid. The _aqua laurocerasi_, or cherry laurel water, is now standardized to contain 0.1% of hydrocyanic acid. It must not be given in doses larger than 2 drachms. It contains benzole hydrate, which is antiseptic, and is therefore suitable for hypodermic injection; but the drug is of inconsistent strength, owing to the volatility of prussic acid.