THE APPLE. 



establishment, after the introduction of Christianity."* It 

 is more probable that is has existed as an indigenous tree 

 throughout all ages, and that the most ancient varieties 

 were accidental variations of the original species, with 

 which the forests abounded. These being cultivated, and 

 subjected to the art and industry of man, would give rise 

 to other varieties, and thus a gradual amehoration 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, before the arrival of the 

 Eomans is evident from their language. In Celtic, it is 

 called Ahhall, or Ahlial ; in Welch, Avail; in Armoric, 

 Afall and Avail ; in Cornish, Aval and Avel. The word is 

 derived from the pure Celtic, hall, signifying any round 

 body.^ The ancient Glastonbury was called by the Britons 

 Ynys Avallac, and Ynys Avallon, which signify an apple 

 orchard," and from this its Roman name Avallonia was 

 derived. The apple must therefore have been known 

 in Britain before the arrival of the Romans ; and that it 

 continued to exist after they left the island, and before the 

 Norman conquest, is certified by Wilham of Malmesbury, 

 who says, that King Edgar in 9*73, while hunting in a wood 

 was left alone by his associates ; in this situation he was 

 overcome by an irresistable desire to sleep, and ahghting 

 from his horse he lay down under the shade of a ivild 

 apple tree} Shortly after the Norman conquest, the same 

 author writes with reference to Gloucestershire. " Cernas 

 tramites publicos vestitos pomiferis arboribus, non insitiva 

 manus industria, sed ipsius solius humi natura." Some 

 writers^ entertain the popular error that the cultivation of 

 apples was not a branch of rural economy in England before 

 Richard Harris planted orchards in several parts of Kent, 

 in the reign of Henry tlie Eighth ; but there is evidence 

 to the contrary. In a bull of Pope Alexander the Third, 

 in the year 1175, confirming the property belonging to the 

 monastery of Winchcombe, in Gloucestershire, is men- 

 tioned, " The town of Twining with all the lands, orc/ianZs, 

 meadows, &c. / and in a charter of King John, granting 

 property to the priory of Lanthony, near Gloucester, is 



«f ^fi^^'w-^l** t"^- "' P- ^^h ^ Armstrong's Gaelic Dictionary, c Owen's Dictionary 

 Tol 1 !^^, «- T^^'IT > r}"'^- "• ^.^?;,*^- ' Duncumb's History of Herefordslure, 

 Tol. 1, p. 18/. f Rudder s History of Gloucestershire, App. liii.. No. xxxv 



B 2 



