The Cider-Counties. . 25 



island the noble course which has never slackened. Cider- 

 apples were introduced by the Normans, and though Kent 

 led the way, it was while the earliest cathedrals were rising 

 from the ground that the foundations were laid for the 

 future fame of the "cider-counties,"* those beautiful 

 lands, beginning with Devon upon the south, and ending 

 with Hereford in the north, which form a semi-circle 

 round the upper portion of the Bristol Channel, and 

 which, when the orchards are in bloom often covering 

 many acres are the loveliest in our country j becoming 

 so again when the fruit is ripe, excelling even the corn- 

 fields. For a short period in late autumn, the spectacle, 

 in some parts at all events, is unique, one that in England 

 only apple-trees can supply. This is when the leaves 

 have mostly dropped, but the fruit still clings to the 

 boughs, and, the sun shining on its loveliness, we are 

 reminded of Paris on the top of Ida, and the rival god- 

 desses who for a moment 



"The veil divine 

 Cast unconfined, and gave him all their charms." 



The names of various old towns and villages in England 

 which commemorate early apple-culture, as Applethwaite, 

 Applegarth, Appleby, Appledurcombe, date, according 

 to Isaac Taylor, from times anterior to the Conquest. 



* Cider is said to have been first made in England about the year 

 1284. Coincidences are always curious : the preparations were 

 just then in hand for the building of the nave of York Minster ; 

 Caernarvon Castle, quite recently completed, was the scene, in this 

 identical year, of the birth of Edward II. 

 E 



