Wearing the leek

On St David’s Day the Welsh wear a leek, and Chambers collected several reasons given for it. The favourite was that St David ordered his countrymen to put leeks in their hats in a battle with the Saxons, so they could tell friend from foe, while Shakespeare’s Fluellen traced it to a fight in a leek garden in France under the Black Prince. Kings and queens long humoured the custom: the household of the Princess Mary paid the Yeomen of the Guard in 1544 for bringing her a leek on the day. It is still worn, along with the daffodil.