50- .1 HISTORY OF GARDEXING IN ENGLAND. 



preserved, such dressed vegetables rarely, if ever, occur. At the 



third course of a banquet on the occasion of Henry the Fourth's 



marriage, "pescodde" and "strawberry" were among the dishes, 



but this is almost a solitary instance among bills of fare of that 



date.* Cabbages were, from the earliest times, grown in this 



country, but it may be some improved variety which is referred 



to in the following passage f: — "Sir Anthony Ashley, of Wim- 



borne St. Giles, Dorset, first planted cabbages in this country, 



and a cabbage at his feet appears on his monument." The tomb 



is to be seen in the church to this day, dated 1627. 



There was both a good variety and a fair suppl}^ of fruit in the 



fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Several new kinds of apple 



and pear are mentioned by the poets of the day, and must have 



been well known. Lydgate speaks of the Pomewater,J Ricardon, 



Blaundrelle, and Queening apples. Gower of another kind, the 



Bitter-sweet : — 



" Por all such time of love is lore 

 And like unto the bitter-swete 

 For though it think a man fyrst swete 

 He shall well felen at laste 

 That it is sower." § — Coiifessio Aniantis. 



In the " Miller's Tale," Chaucer incidentally alludes to the old 

 custom of storing apples, — 



" Hire mouthe was swete as 



. . . hord of apples, laid in hay or hethe." 



He gives us the name of a pear, evidently newly introduced, in 

 the same description, — 



" She was wel more blisful on to see 

 Than is the newe perjenete tree." 



Wardons were still the most popular of cooking varieties. In 

 recipes for dressing pears, the Warden is usually intended; as,|| 



* Tivo Fifteenth Century Cookery Books. By T. Austin, E. V.. Text Soc. 



■j" Isaac V)'\?,ra.e\\, Curiosities of Literature. 



J Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. — " Ripe as a Pomewater, who 

 hangeth now like a jewel in the car of ccelo — the sky, the welkin, the heaven." 



§ Rotneo and Juliet. — "Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting, it is a most 

 sharp sauce." 



II Harl. MS. 4016. K. K. Text Soc. 



