loo 



JuUiviNAi^ Ui' ailtil lUOljJ Uhr 



of the agreement to carry out which the Society'fl charter was 

 granted; and the event Las proved that the South Kensington 

 Gaiilene have added to the surrounding property much more 

 than their original value plus the money spent on them. The 

 Society has bo spent 73,000 on permanent works, and £20,000 

 or £30,000 on materials and labour — in all something like 

 £100,000, which the advocates of the public now ask to oon- 

 fiscate ; and it no more monopolises its gardens than the pro- 

 prietors of the Pall Mall Gazette monopolise that popular 

 journal. Opinions may reasonably differ as to what is a fair 

 rent, but that paid for the gardens by the Society during the 

 last fifteen years has considerably exceeded in amount that paid 

 during the fiame time by the Royal Botanic Society for an equal 

 acreage in Regent's Park. Your statement that the Society 

 'could not exist if it depended wholly on South Kensington' 

 may be true if (as in your article) you limit this district to two 

 or three streets, but it is otherwise if yon extend it so as to 

 embrace the metropolitan Fellows who enjoy the gardens there. 

 So nnderstood it would be more correct to say Chiswick on its 

 present scale could not exist without South Kensington, for 

 the scientific work carried on at the former place absorbs every 

 penny of what I may be allowed to call purely horticultural 

 Bubscriptions, together with a considerable rate in aid from 

 the latter. In conclusion, I may say that if you will honour 

 the Society with your presence at the next fruit and floral 

 meeting on the 7th of March, yon will not only see a display 

 of plants worthy of the best of its bygone days, but will also be 

 able to satisfy yourself that the gardens are far from being a 

 wilderness." 



NOTES ON POMOLOGY IN HEREFOBDSHIRE. 



(Kead at a meeting of the Woolhope Club bj tho Kev. C. H. Bnlmrr.) 

 I WILL in my retrospective survey take a glance at the 

 historic Apples and Pears which were formerly cultivated in 

 Herefordshire, although most of them are best known now-a- 

 days by their varieties. It seems to me I can most practically 

 thus treat my subject, because I thoroughly endorse Andrew 

 Koight'e remark, though contrary, I am aware, to the opinion 

 of the best old pomological writers, that " Herefordshire is not 

 60 much indebted to its soil as to some valuable varieties ;" 

 and in commenting on thepe varieties seriatim I shall be able 

 to show you further that there is also great truth iu another 

 remark of Andrew Knight, that from the description that Par- 

 kinson (who wrote in 1C29) has given of the Apples cultivated 

 in his time, it is evident that many of those known by the 

 same name are quite different and probably new varieties, some 

 being so altered for better or worse as to assume quite a new 

 seasonal or structural character. Among cider Apples, to 

 which these remarks specially apply, the Bedstreak or Souda- 

 more Crab then reigned supreme ; tho early-fruiting Genet 

 Moyle, its hardly formidable rival except with the ladies — both 

 varieties long years ago overtaken and swept away by the tide 

 of time; the Must and Golden Pippin, pigmy anatomies of 

 their former selves; while the Foxwhelp and Styre in a mori- 

 bund state are only exitting on their past reputation, which 

 their numerous progeny unfortunately does not in any degree 

 give promise of sustaining. 



I will take first some of our historic perry Pears on account 

 of their extreme longevity and from being so well known to us 

 all. The Teignton Squash is first in point of excellence if 

 not of antiquity, having existed without doubt at the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century. Its origin is unknown. Although 

 in the last stage of debility and decay the old trees bear well, 

 though disappearing fast. The growth of the Teignton Squush 

 resmibles very closely that of the Longland, a variety which 

 is still flourishing, and of all Pears I should call the farmer's 

 friend, as its fruit keeps fairly and makes very good perry; 

 while to the housewife nothing can exceed it as a stewing Pear 

 iu richness and colour, before the Catillac and other late stew- 

 ing Pears come into season. The Oldfield, however, is the 

 best Pear we have, whether its fecundity or the lasting qualities 

 of its fruit or perry is considered. Evelyn mentions in his 

 day (1706) a gentleman who had some bottles of Oldfield 

 perry brought him from a distance of eight hundred miles that 

 was over forty years old, as rich and high- flavoured as ever it 

 was — a perfect regale be calls it. I can also endorse Evelyn's 

 eulogium, "Penes auctorem fit fides," as I have tasted some 

 bottled perry from this variety over forty years old in perfect 

 condition made from my own glebe orchard from original trees, 

 I do not hesitate saying, although in full bearing, that are in 

 their third century. These, however, I regret to say, are iso- 



lated facts — the exception, not the rule ; as the description of 

 Palladius holds good now-a-days as in his times, centories 

 ago, that perry, chiefly owing to its irrepressible fermentation, 

 " Ilyemc durat, sed prima accessit instate." The most pic- 

 turesque and popular without doubt is the venerable Barland 

 or Bearland, originally of Bosbury ; the same eld lofty-growing 

 trees we see growing now most probably filled the tankards of 

 the Herefordshire farmer and his guests in the seventeenth 

 century, and is more a sister beverage — a right sort of smoUe- 

 a-pipe perry, as an old right-sorted farmer himself described 

 Foxwhelp cider — than any other. Of dessert sorts of historio 

 Pears time will only allow of my mentioning two — the Easter 

 Beurrc and Beurrc Diel, and to find them a local and special 

 history. These two varieties, I have ascertained, were shown 

 in far larger quantities at the last pomological exhibition than 

 any others, and both in their selection and production reflected 

 great credit on the growers. Looking at the market price of 

 fruit in Covent Garden a short time back, and before the 

 London season began, I found these two identical Pears alone 

 mentioned by name at what must be considered the highly 

 remunerative price of os. to 12s. per dozen; while Blenheim 

 and Kibston Pippins (again strange to record), shown at our 

 pomological exhibition both by far greater quantities than any 

 other variety of Apples, fetched from 12s. to ISs. per bushel. 

 It is well, I believe, to ceimment on facts like these when in 

 Herefordshire, the orchard of England, so many tons of first- 

 quality fruit are suffered to perish through want of seasonable 

 pruning, sheltering, or picking, or still more unpardonable 

 neglect of the simplest rules to bo observed in subsequent 

 hoarding. Thus the home counties and Hertfordshire, and 

 even some parts of Yorkshire, who, as Phillips sings — 



" do not disdain to leftvn 

 IIow Katare's gifts may be imiiroved by Art," 

 command a ready market ; while Herefordshire, with the finest 

 natural advantages in the world, is obliged perfunctorily to 

 depend upon the impecunious visits of the huckster for the 

 sale of her immense surplus stock of what she has only to 

 thank herself for being pit fruit and pot fruit. 



As I must hurry on, I feel, to bring my paper to a close, I 

 win only give you a list of the most celebrated of the historio 

 varieties of Apples, making a few remarks afterwards chiefly 

 as regards the nomenclature and varieties of those oldest, best 

 known, and valued. 



The Joan or Juneating and Margaret, the Pomeroy, tho 

 Catthead and Costard, the Winter Qnoining or Queening, the 

 old Pearmain, the Kusset or Eoyal Kusset, tbe Lemon or 

 Quince Pippin, the Golden Pippin, the Nonpareil, the Beefing 

 and the Margil ; and among cider fruit the Bed Dymock, the 

 Forest Styre, the Boyal Wilding, tbe Bedstreak, the Woodcock, 

 the Foxwhelp. This list, I believe, includes nearly all that 

 may be styled the historic varieties, some flourishing, some 

 lingering ou to tbe present day. 



The etymology of tho Joannetting or Juneating Apple is so 

 singular and decides the names of so many other Apples and 

 Pears, that I shall not apologise for selecting it. It is one of 

 the oldest and earliest bearing Apple?, hence the mistake about 

 its name being Juueatiug, iu aiii: Ma to its maturity at the 

 end of June or July. Dr. Hogg traci's its name to Joannetting, 

 because its Apples ripened about St. John's day ; and for a 

 similar reason the next Apple I mention, the Margaret Apple, 

 derives its name from St. Margaret's day, the 20th July, when 

 this Apple would be in season. The Costard is one of the 

 oldest of our English Apples. This variety is actually men- 

 tioned by name in a fruiterer's bill in Edward I.'s reign in 

 1202, as previously alluded to ; and although now almost 

 extinct, still used to be so common that retailers of it (even 

 the very price mentioned at l.s'. per 100) were called costard 

 mongers, a name in popular use now in tbe word costermonger. 

 Some etymologists, including the great Br. Johnson, consider 

 the name Costard to be derived from eosi, a head, but how it 

 iB hard to say or rather to see. Dr. Hogg traces the name to 

 costatus, anijlice costate or ribbed, on account of the promi- 

 nent ribs on its sides. The (Juoining or Queening Apple is an 

 old Apple, of which we have many '\'arieties in Herelordshire 

 (notably the Cowarne Quoiniiig, a most valuable Apple) which 

 were excellently and numerously shown at our pomological 

 exhibition. The name (^HioiuiDg may be traced by the angularity 

 of the shape of the Apple, similarly as in the Costard, from 

 the word quoin or coin, the corner-stone of a building. The 

 Catshead is another very old Apple still grown amongst us, 

 hut chiefly I have noticed in cottagers' gardens, where it is 

 gradually giving way to the Hawthornden and Lord Snflield, 



