AugUHt 27, 1874. J 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



189 



points. It is of line pine flavour.— W. P. Badclypfe, Okeford 



FitziHihiP, Dorset. 



THOMAS TUSSER.— No. .">. 



KixiiEK Tusser did not long continue servitor at Trinity 

 College, or the service was compatible with his residing at 

 Chesterton, about two miles distant from the college. He 

 possessed lands in that parish, though of small extent, for in 

 his will he devised to his wife and to his son Thomas, " those 

 seven acres and a roodeof copyholde which I now have, Ijingo 

 in the parish or fields at Chesterton. Also all suche estate 

 and tearme of yeares as I have yet to come in a certain close 

 called Lawyer's Close, lyeinge and beinge in the parish of 

 Chesterton, which said close I have demised unto one William 

 Mosse, for the tearme of one whole yeare, begiuinge at the 

 Feast of St. Gregorye last past, yeklinge and payinge for the 

 3ame sxxvs. rente. Also the residue of all my bonds, goods, 

 and ohaltells, moveable and immoveable, in Chesterton afore- 

 said or eUs where." 



That it was his residence seems clear from the first clause of 

 Lis will, in which he describes himself, " Thomas Tusser, of 

 Chesterton, in the countye of Cambridge, gent." When or 

 how he became the possessor of the Chesterton property we do 

 not know ; and though he might extract from it a subsistence, 

 it could yield him no more, and he evidently looked upon it 

 as only subsidiary, for says — 



" Too fond were I, here thus to lie, 

 Unless that wealth, might further health. 

 And profit some, should therehy come. 

 To help withall." 



Tusser probably inherited, or had devised to him, the Ches- 

 terton property from some collateral relative resident there, 

 for it is certain that some branch or branches of the Tuseers 

 were resident at Cambridge. Evidence of this are the follow- 

 ing entries in the Treasurer of the Borough's accounts : — 

 " 1515. — Item, for the ferme of another tent [tenement i , sett 

 and buylded in the said butterrowe, in the tenure of 

 Willm. Tusser, xxvis. viiii/." 

 " 1525-f>. — Item, of Thorns Tusser for the ferme of another 



tent buylded in the said butt'rowe, xvij>. viiicZ." 

 " 1530-31.— Item, of Thoms Tusser for the ferme of another 



tent in the butt'rowe, xxvis. viiid." 

 The plague continued devastating London until 1575, and 

 between that year and 1580 Tusser returned to the city. It 

 seems from his own autobiography that he felt " Death draw- 

 ing near," and in wise preparation he executed his will, as 

 thus stated in its preamble : — " In the name of God, Amen. 

 The XXV. of April, 1580, I, Thomas Tusser, of Chesterton, in 

 the countye of Cambridge, gent., being feeble in bodye, but 

 perfecte in memorie, thanks be to God, doe make and ordaine 

 this my last will and testament." It was drawn-up in ac- 

 customed legal phraseology by " John Plommer, of Barnard's 

 Inne," and among the witnesses to its execution was " Francis 

 Shaokletou, the Parson of St. Myldred's, in the Poulterie,' in 

 which parish he seems to have resided, for in its church was 

 this epitaph recorded by the chronicler Stow : — 

 " Here. Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie. 

 Who sometime marie the ' Points of Ilu-baudi'y : ' 

 By him, then, leani thou mayst, — here learn we must, 

 ^Vh6n all is done, we sleep and turn to dust: 

 And yet, throuyh Christ, to heaven we hope to go, 

 Who reads his books shall hiid his faith was so." 



The church of St. Mildred was destroyed iu the Great Fire 

 of Loudon, and with it perished Tusser's monument. 



The original wiU is not to be found, but there are registered 

 copies at Doctors' Commons, and in the Registry of the Bishop 

 of Ely. The will states that William Tusser, the testator's 

 brother, who we mentioned as being Fellow of King's College, 

 owed him on a recognisance, " three huudrethe and thirtie 

 powndes." Of this sum the testator, Thomas Tusser, directs 

 £50 to be paid to each of his four children, Thomas, John, 

 Edmond, and Mary, on attaining the age of twenty-one, and 

 £5 a-year until they attained that age, " for and towards their 

 bringinge-up." Then the testator bequeaths " unto Amye 

 Tusser, my wyef, the summe of foure score pounds." To his 

 eldest son, Thomas, he also bequeaths " my bookes of musicke 

 and virginalls ;" and after providing for remainders, and that 

 his funeral should not be above the summe of twenty e marckes ' 

 (a mark was V>s. 4(Z.j,he appointed his eldest son his executor, 

 and "Edmund Moon, gent., father of the said Amye my 

 wyef, and grandfather unto my forenamed children, guardian 

 and tutor unto my forenamed children, and supervisor and 



overseer of this my last will and testament." The will was 

 proved by Thomas, the testator's son, on the 8th of August, 

 1580, in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury. 



We have now recorded all the information we have been able 

 to collect, and it only remains for us, in a final communication, 

 to detail from his published works the information they afford 

 relative to the gardening of the time during which he lived. 



MESSRS. HOVEY & CO.'S COLLECTION OF 

 PEARS. 



To go into a full account of our entire collection 1 fear 

 would fill too much space, and be a repetition of what I had 

 iu past years written upon the subject ; but as your readers 

 may know nothing of that, I gladly give you pretty nearly the 

 information you ask. And here I may say your supposition 

 in regard to the age of the oldest tree was pretty near right — 

 viz., thirty years. 



We began our collection of trees in the autumn of 1811, our 

 object being the study of the nomenclature rather than any 

 other purpose, the fruit Ijeing altogether of a secondary nature. 

 At that time our ground had just been reclaimed from an old 

 pasture, and we had but a small portion suitably prepared for 

 trees. About one hundred trees were planted in the sprmg 

 and autumn of 1842, and from one hundred to two hundred 

 every year, as the ground was ready, up to 1855, since which 

 time only few trees had been planted to take the place of those 

 which gave out. 



Our grounds are laid out in squares, measuring about 

 150 feet on the sides, and the walks separating these squares 

 are just 8 feet wide. Upon each side of these walks — though 

 but one part of our grounds — borders were prepared U feet 

 wide by simply half-trenching, and the trees were set out iu 

 a single file in the centre, just 3 feet from the edge of the 

 walk, and feet from centre to centre of each tree, giving 

 about twenty-five trees to each border. These borders number 

 about seventy, and are planted with about 1800 Pear trees. 

 The entire walks between the trees would extend, in a straight 

 line, a distance of over a mUe and a half. Such was the style 

 and formation of our plantation. 



Of course our object being to study the trees and test every 

 known variety, they were planted as thickly as possible on 

 account of space, and as many upon the Quince stock as we 

 could get, supposing, at that time, that one Pear would grow 

 as well on the Quince as another. Up to 1844 we had planted 

 every variety to be found in the United States, and many 

 from abroad ; but in the autumn of that year we visited the 

 English and French nurseries, and selected every variety that 

 could be obtained. M. Jamin, of Paris, assisted us in securing 

 as many as possible. These were all planted in nursery rows, 

 ready for removal as soon as the ground was prepared ; but 

 many of them remained four or five years before removal, 

 subject all the time to pruning and pinching to make them 

 perfect pyramids. 



From the commencement of planting, another object was 

 to show the perfection of pyramidal training, and up to 1854 

 this was kept up, every good tree branching to the ground, 

 perfect in symmetry and form ; a magnificent show indeed — 

 but all show— no fruit, except those on the Quince. Ten long 

 years of care and labour gave us but a slight opportunity to 

 test the fruit. In the meantime tree after tree on the Quince 

 had given out, and their places been filled with others. We 

 had then learned that but few varieties of Pears will succeed 

 on the Quince, and we gave up that stock for every variety 

 not already proved or reported to succeed, making the further 

 provision in all future planting to have the Quince stock 

 every alternate tree, so that the rows might be somewhat 

 uniform in appearance. We had, at that time, probably some 

 1500 varieties of Pears. A year or two more of care and 

 labour we thought would bring about the brilliant prospect 

 of bountiful crops ; but alas ! they failed to come— more than 

 half of our trees were varieties which would not grow on the 

 ground. Many of the latter had already fruited and died, and 

 their places been filled with duplicates or new kinds. What 

 should be done ■with the others :' 



Long reflection and close observation told us the pyramid 

 was too slow and labour too dear for us Americans. If we 

 would have fruit we must stop the constant heading and 

 pinching-in, but rather prune up; and acting upon our cor- 

 rections, we decided to let the trees " alone." Away they 

 went, apparently as happy as a bird loosed from its cage, and 



