254 ROSACEyE 



believe that pears were then highly esteemed. The monks paid much atten- 

 tion to the culture of this fruit, and in accounts of the fourth and twentieth 

 years of Edward I., among purchases made for the royal garden at West- 

 minster Pears were enumerated ; and there is extant a writ of Henry III., 

 directing his gardener to plant the Caillou Pear both at Westminster and in 

 his garden at the Tower. The pears mentioned in the bills delivered into 

 the Treasury by the fruiterer of Edward I., in the year 1292, are the St. 

 Regie, Caillou, Pessepucelle, Martin, Dreyes, Sorells, Grold- Knobs, and 

 Cheysills, and the very high prices paid for them prove the great esteem in 

 which they were held. Mr. Turner says, " There is still a common Scotch 

 Pear, called the Golden Knapp, which is possibly the very sort supplied to 

 Edward I., more than five centuries and a half gone by." When we come 

 to the period of Henry VIH., we find various mention of the Pear by the 

 herbalists and gardeners of his day. An old account of that monarch's 

 household expenses has an item of twopence " to a woman who gaff the 

 King peres." Gerarde, who, in Queen Elizabeth's time, had the superin- 

 tendence of Lord Burleigh's fine garden, and who had himself in Holborn a 

 large physic-garden, probably the best in this country at that time, says, 

 that to write of the sorts of Apples and Pears, and "these exceeding good," 

 would require a "particular volume.' He tells of an "excellent grafter 

 and painful planter, Master Henry Bunbury, who had them in his grounds," 

 as had also "a most diligent and affectionate lover of plants, Master Warner, 

 neere Horsly Down," and says they were "grown in divers places about 

 London." Many of our common Pears originated on the Continent, hence 

 some of those names which seem absurd now, but which are corruptions of 

 old French or other languages. Such is the Bury Pear, which should be 

 BeurrS, probably because its juicy substance would melt in the mouth like 

 butter. The Boncrukhing of modern days is well known to be corrupted from 

 the Bon-Chrdtien, which is in itself an absurd name enough when applied to a 

 Pear. One of its best varieties has a still more ridiculous appellation, being 

 called the Bon-Chrdtien Tare. 



Everyone who has lived in the country can recollect seeing some ancient 

 Pear-tree, still in spring showing its snowy clusters, and rich in autumn with 

 its brown fruits, for the cultivated Pear-tree attains a great age, though it 

 does not seem to be very long-lived in its wild condition. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Jedburgh Abbey, and in lands lying about various religious houses 

 in Scotland, there are Pear-trees which, there is every reason to believe, were 

 planted by the monks, and are between five and six hundred years old. The 

 most remarkable English Pear-tree is mentioned by Dr. Neile, as standing 

 in the glebe of the parish of Holme Lacy, in Herefordshire. The branches 

 formerly hung down, and gradually reached the ground, where they took 

 root. Each branch became a new tree, again producing others, till it 

 extended itself so as to cover an acre of ground, and had it been alloAved to 

 remain unmolested would probably have extended further. In the year 

 1776, this tree produced enough pears for fourteen hogsheads of perry, each 

 hogshead containing one hundred gallons. Though in these days reduced 

 in size, it is said by this writer to be still healthy and vigorous, and to pro- 

 duce from two to five hogsheads. The lie v. C. A. Johns, remarking on this 



