CONCERNING lpM 1^ Mi^i, 



to drink of one of the most wholesome and excellent 

 beverages in the world." 



Much in the same strain wrote Gerarde : " Forward 

 in the name of God, grafF, set, plant, and nourish up 

 trees in every corner of your land. The labour is 

 small, the cost is nothing, the commodity is great. 

 Yourselves shall have plenty, the poor shall have 

 somewhat in the time of want to relieve their necessity, 

 and God shall reward your good minds and diligence." 



Many writers and practical reformers took a similar 

 view as to the benefits to be obtained from the more 

 extensive culture of apples, and from improvement in 

 the manufacture of the "noble Drink" which apples 

 yield. 



Evelyn tells us that Herefordshire in the middle of 

 the seventeenth century "had become in a manner but 

 one entire orchard," as much as five million gallons of 

 cider being produced within a circle of twenty miles 

 diameter ; and Dr Beale, a Herefordshire man of the 

 seventeenth century, said : " Few cottagers, yea, very 

 few of our wealthiest yeomen, do taste any other drink 

 in the family, except at some special festivals, twice or 

 thrice in the year, and that for variety rather than with 

 choice." 



There are probably few, if any, parts of these islands 

 where good cider apples may not be grown, and good 

 cider made. For, although Gloucestershire, Hereford- 

 shire, Devonshire and neighbouring counties have been 

 lately most associated with the cider industry, Norfolk, 

 Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Dorsetshire, Essex and many 

 parts of Ireland have all been celebrated for their cider 

 in times past. That Sussex also contained its ciderists 

 is shown by a verse quoted by Mr RadclifFe Cooke in 

 his book on " Cider and Perry " as having been written 

 in 1803 on the fly-leaf of a copy of Phillips' poem 

 "Cyder": 



