January. 13 



this country to the Romans, and others to the Normans ; in both 

 cases, however, without any evidence or well-grounded authority. It 

 is more probable that it has existed as an indigenous tree throughout 

 all ages, and that the most ancient varieties were accidental varia- 

 tions of the original species, with which the forests abounded. These 

 being cultivated and subjected to the art and industry of man, w^ould 

 give rise to other varieties, and thus a gradual amelioration of the 

 fruit would be obtained. The earliest records make mention of the 

 Apple in the most familiar terms. That it was known to the ancient 

 Britons is evident from their language. In Celtic it is called Abhall 

 or AhJial ; in Welsh, Avail ; in Armoric, A fall and Avail; in Cornish, 

 Aval and Avel. The word is derived from the pure Celtic, ball, 

 signifying any round body. The ancient Glastonbury was, before 

 the arrival of the Romans, called by the Britons Ynys Auallag and 

 Ynys Avallon, signifying an apple -orchard ; and hence the Roman 

 name Avallonia. Some writers entertain the popular error that the 

 cultivation of Apples w^as not a branch of rural economy in England 

 before Richard Harris planted orchards in several parts of Kent, in 

 the reign of Henry VIII. ; but there is evidence to the contrary. In 

 a bull of Pope Alexander III., in the year 1175, confirming the pro- 

 perty belonging to the monastery of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, 

 is mentioned, ' The town of Twining w^ith all the lands, orchards, 

 meadows, &c. ;' and in a charter of King John, granting property to 

 the Priory of Lanthony, near Gloucester, is mentioned ' the church 

 of Herdesley, with twelve acres of land, and an orchard.' 



WiUiam of Malmesbury, in speaking of Gloucestershire, says, 

 * Cernas tramites publicos vestitos pomiferis arboribus, nan insitiva 

 manus industria, sed ipsius sollus humi natura.' Its cultivation was 

 not confined to the southern counties, for we find there was an exten- 

 sive manufacture of cider as far north as Richmond in Yorkshire, in 

 the early part of the thirteenth century. It is probable that in the 

 middle ages some varieties were introduced from the Continent, by 

 members of the different religious houses which then existed, who 

 not unfrequently had personal intercourse with France, and who de- 

 voted considerable attention to horticulture; but there is every reason 

 to believe that the earliest varieties were native productions. The 

 oldest works which treat on the cultivation of fruits afford little or 

 no information as to these early varieties. In some ancient docu- 

 ments of the twelfth century, we find the Pearmain and Costard men- 

 tioned; but the horticultural works of the period are too much occupied 

 with the fallacies and nonsense which distinguish those of the Roman 

 geoponic writers, to convey to us any knowledge of the early Pomo- 

 logy of this country. Turner, in his Herbal, has no record of any of 

 the varieties, and simply states in reference to the Apple, ' I nede not 

 to descrybe thys tre, because it is knowen well inoughe in all countres.' 

 Barnaby Googe mentions, as ' chiefe in price, the Pippen, the Romet, 

 the Pomeroyall, the Marigold, with a great number of others that 

 were too long to speake of.' Leonarde Mascal gives instructions 

 how ' to graffe the Quyne Apple ;' but that is the only variety he 

 mentions. 



