ROSE TRIBE 253 



for this purpose. Gerarde says, that the plates of his book were cut out of 

 this wood, as were, he adds, breastplates for English gentlewomen. The 

 Persians are said to make their most beautifixl spoons of the wood of the 

 Pear-tree. When burnt to ashes it was also esteemed medicinal, and l)oth 

 this substance and the fruit were considered to counteract the poison of 

 mushrooms. 



The Wild Pear is of little use ; but as, in making perry, harsh rather 

 than sweet pears are chosen, it sometimes mingles with the cultivated fruit 

 in the preparation of this beverage. In this country the manufacture of 

 perry is chiefly confined to Worcestershire, and three pears form the armorial 

 bearing of the provincial city. Nor is this the only instance in which the 

 pear is used as an armorial escutcheon. Mr. T. Hudson Turner remarks : 

 " The horticultural skill of the Cistercian monks of Wardon in Bedfordshire, 

 a foundation dating from the twelfth century, produced, at some early but 

 uncertain time, a baking variety of the pear. It bore and still bears the 

 name of their abbey, figured on their armorial escutcheon, and supplied the 

 contents of those Wardon pies so often named in old descriptions of feasts, 

 and which so many of our historical novelists have represented as huge 

 pasties of venison, or other meat suited to the digestive capacities of gigantic 

 wardens of feudal days. It is time, in justice to these venerable gardeners, 

 that this error should be exploded. Their application to horticultural pur- 

 suits, even up to the Dissolution, is honourably attested by a survey of their 

 monastery made after that event : it mentions the ' great vineyard,' the 'little 

 vineyard ' two orchards, doubtless that in which the Wardon was first reared, 

 and a hop-yard. The Wardon Pear is still known in the west and other parts of 

 England. Lawson, whose 'New Orchard and Garden ' was published in 1597, 

 remarks that hard winter fruits and Wardons are not fit to gather until 

 some time after Michaelmas : another author, of about the same date, says, 

 Wardons are to be gathered, carried, packt, and laid as winter Pears are," 

 Mr. Turner adds in a note, "The late editors of Dugdale's 'Monasticon' 

 remark that Wardon Pears were sometimes called Abbot's Pears, but no 

 authority is given for the assertion." 



Pears having been known in this country at a very early period, it is 

 likely that the Romans introduced some of the cultivated sorts. Pliny 

 mentions Pears of various kinds which were grown in Italy, and says that a 

 fermented liquor was made from their juice. It is amusing to read the 

 names by which some of the Italian Pears were distinguished, though we 

 can now no longer trace their identities with our own Pears. He tells of 

 the Syrian, the Alexandrine, the Numidian, the Grecian, the Picentine, the 

 Numantine, the Crustumine, and the Falernian Pears, of all of which the 

 two last named were most valued. There were Tiberian Pears, named after 

 the Emperor ; and Barley Pears, and Aromatic Pears, and Laurel Pears, so 

 called from their pleasant scents; some, which ripened the earliest and 

 decayed the soonest, were reproachfully called Proud Pears. He remarked, 

 that all pears have the property of wine, and were therefore cautiously pre- 

 scribed by physicians. Chaucer often speaks of the " Pere," and a tradition 

 tells that King John was poisoned by something mingled in a dish of pears 

 by the monks of Swinstead, a tradition which at least would lead us to 



