In partnership with Wilderness England, my sister Elizabeth and I went on a wonderful hiking trip in England. One day, as part of the trip, our group visited the famous Poison Garden at the Alnwick Castle, a place that I’ve wanted to see for years.

Alnwick Castle is the traditional seat of the Duke of Northumberland, and the garden was established by the current Duchess of Northumberland when she and her husband took up residence there.

The walled and gated garden is terrific. I was fascinated to learn about all these dangerous plants, and how their poisons work, and also to hear some famous examples of how people used these poisons in various crimes.

Some of the plants are so dangerous that they’re kept in cages, and one is even kept in a closed container because merely touching it causes such severe agony.

For our tour, we had a terrific guide, who was full of information and also very funny. At one point, he was explaining how a particular plant could be used as a deadly poison, and was also an important ingredient in life-saving medicine.

I was reminded of one of my Secrets of Adulthood: Every medicine can become poison.

During his discussion, as an aside, our guide made a casual remark that I keep thinking about. 

He said, “The Duchess doesn’t want me talking about medicine, she wants me to stick to poison.”

And I thought, how interesting. I think that’s true. People are interested in a Poison Garden, not a Medicine Garden! Sure, some people would be interested, but it wouldn’t attract the crowds of people waiting in line like we saw.

I was curious to learn more about the garden, so when I returned home, I looked it up online. I found an article in Smithsonian Magazine, in which the duchess is quoted explaining her idea for the Poison Garden:

“I thought, ‘This is a way to interest children,'” she says. “Children don’t care that aspirin comes from a bark of a tree. What’s really interesting is to know how a plant kills you.”

I agree, I think that’s true.

Why is that? Why is a poison garden so much more interesting than a medicine garden? Perhaps it’s the negativity bias—our hardwired tendency to be more interested in, learn better, and pay attention more to things of a negative nature than by things that are positive or neutral.

I have to admit, for years I’d been wanting to visit that Poison Garden, and I don’t think that an Apothecary Garden would have been on my bucket list. It’s true of children, and it’s true of me too.