55 



the charge according to the value of our present currency. In 

 the reign of Henry the VII, (1405 — 1509,) it appears in 

 a MS. signed by the Monarch himself, preserved in the Re- 

 membrance Office, that Apples wore from one to two shillings 

 each, a redone fetching the highest price.* Yet it was not be- 

 cause tho varieties of our Garden products were few. Tusscr 

 enumerates of " Soedcs and herbes for the kychiMi, horbes and 

 rootes for sallets and sawse, herbes and rootos to boylo or to 

 butter, strewing herbes of all sortes, herbes, branches, and 

 flowers for windowes and pots, herbes to still in summer, nc- 

 cessarie herbes to grow in the garden for physik, not rehcrst 

 before," above one hundred and tifty species. Of fruits, he 

 mentions many kinds of Apples; Apricoches ; Bar-bcrrics ; 

 Bollcse, black and white ; Cherries, red and black ; Chesnuts; 

 Cornet-Plums, (Cornelian Cherry?); Damisens, white and 

 black; Filberts, red and white; Gooseberries; Grapes, white 

 and red ; Grene or Grass Plums ; Hurtil-berries, (V^accinium 

 vitis-idffia;) Medlers or Merles ; Mulberries; Peaches, white 

 red and yellow fleshed ; Peres of many kinds ; Peer Plums, 

 black and yellow; Quinces; Raspes; Reisoiis (Currants?); 

 Hazel-Nuts; Strawberries, red and white; Services; Wardens 

 white and red ; Walnuts ; and Wheat Phuns. 



The Almond was introduced in this reign. Some Authors 

 also affirm that the Cherry having been lost during the turmoils 

 of the Saxon dynasty, was introduced again during this reign 

 by Rich. Haines, the Kings Fruiterer; but this is an error, for 

 Warton gives a quotation from Lidgate, a Poet who lived about 

 1415, which proves that Cherries were then so common as to 

 be hawked about the streets. Although the Lemon was not 

 cultivated in this country until the reign of James I., it is upon 

 record that the Leatherseller's Company gave six silver pennies 

 for one. which was served up at a Civic feast given to Henry 



• Pcannain Apples are as old a? the Jays of Kinij John, (1199 — 1216 ) 

 Rot. Fin, 6. John. m. 13, Blount's Ant. Tenures, p. 69. 



