MINOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 321 



the fruits and vegetables of Holland made their way into this 

 country. 



The fruits which I find purchased are apples, pears, quinces, 

 cherries, strawberries, raspberries, damsons, walnuts, filberts, 

 and hazel-nuts. To these I may add skeggs, a Warwick- 

 shire name for the bullace or wild plum. Now some of these 

 fruits are so costly, that it is difficult to conceive that they 

 were of home growth. For example, quinces are bought in 1 600 

 at the rate of us. %d. the hundred, in 1604 at us. the hundred, 

 and in 1653 at $ s - ^ e hundred. The last entry, at a time when 

 general prices had greatly risen, but at the same time when a 

 great impulse was being given to horticulture, may be due to 

 a home cultivation of this fruit-tree. 



Of pears, the choicest and the dearest, due to its quality and 

 its power of keeping long, was that known as the warden. A 

 bushel of ordinary pears could be bought for a shilling, but my 

 first entry of wardens in 1595 is at i\d. each, or is. 6d. for 

 a dozen. In 1601 they are bought for a third this price, lod. 

 a score, but in 1692 they cost id. a piece, thirty being bought 

 for 5J., and even more, for a hundred cost zos. in the same 

 year. In 1622 they are Ss. and ics. the hundred. In 1607, 

 poplin pears, a name I do not remember to have seen, are at 

 is. the hundred; and in 1649, bergamot pears are at is. 6d. 

 for the same quantity. 



Apples are generally bought by the quarter, and the price 

 varies exceedingly, according to the plenty or scarcity of the 

 season, and very likely more according to the quality of the 

 fruit. They are sometimes however bought by the hundred, 

 and then I conceive that the entry is of choice fruit. In 1594 

 apples are at is. ^d. the hundred, in 1606 at is., in 1607 at 

 is. id., in 1621 at is. 4^., and we are told that the last were 

 pippins. Now in 1653, ordinary apples were at i6s. the 

 quarter, pippins at 32*.; and in 1659, tne highest recorded 

 price of apples, 64^. the quarter, is also of this lasting fruit. The 

 cheapest were the early kinds, as in 1696, when apples so de- 

 scribed are only Ss. the quarter. The lowest price in my 



VOL. V. Y 



