The Cherry. 79 



Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, 



Due but to one, and crowned with one crest. 



And will you rend our ancient love asunder 



To join with men, in scorning your poor friend ? 



It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly ; 



Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, 



Though I alone do feel the injury." 



The simple but pretty song "Cherry Ripe" is very slightly 

 altered from one written by Herrick, the clergyman poet, 

 temp. Charles I., to whom we owe " Fair Daffodils." 



Numerous varieties of this pleasant fruit are now 

 cultivated in England, many of them understood to 

 have come originally from Holland and Belgium. The 

 best are considered to be the common Bigarreau, the 

 Bigarreau Napoleon, the late black Bigarreau, the Bedford 

 Prolific, the Royal Duke, the Early Rivers, the Early Red 

 Guigne, the Elton, the Black Tartarian, the Early Lyons 

 (or Rose de Lyons) ; and, specially adapted to the 

 northern counties, Florence, Governor Wood, Knight's 

 Early Black, and the good old well-known May-duke* 

 and Morello, the last-named doing well against a north 

 wall. When the plantation is a large one, the trees 

 should be so disposed as to form a square, not put in 

 lines, since the birds, never slow to discover cherry-trees, 

 can then be more readily challenged ; whereas when in 

 lines, the never-failing blackbirds in particular, on being 

 disturbed, simply chuckle and go to the other end. Any 

 kind of soil will do for cherry-trees, except the very wet 

 and clayey, thought they thrive best in sandy loam. 



* Corrupted from Medoc, the name of part of the Gironde. 



