CIDER APPLES. 



159 



SKYRME'S KERNEL. 



The Skyrmes are an old Herefordshire family, and a century 

 or two since, one branch held an estate at Brockhampton, called 

 the Upper House, for some generations. It passed to the 

 Protheroes, by marriage, in 1788. Another branch of the Skyrmes 

 lived at Devvsall, near Hereford. History is silent as to which 

 of them grew the Kernel that bears the family name, but it may 

 very probably have been raised at Brockhampton, for there are 

 many trees there of some 100 or 150 years old ; they are found in 

 that district of the county, and may have spread from it. The 

 apple is not mentioned by any of the old writers. 



Description. — Fruit : small, about two inches wide, and two 

 inches high, ovate, or slightly conical, even and regular in its outhne, 

 and sometimes snouted towards the apex. Skin : smooth and 

 shining, almost entirely covered with broken streaks of brilliant 

 crimson, on a thin pale crimson ground, on the side next the sun ; 

 and lemon yellow, tinged with crimson, and marked with pale 

 crimson stripes, on the shaded side ; the whole surface being 



