CHEEKY EIPE. 71 



Fuller, " spread into 32 parishes, and were sold at great 

 rates. I have read," continues that author, " that one of 

 the orchards of this primitive plantation, consisting but 

 of 30 acres, produced fruit of one year which sold for 

 1,000 ; plenty, it seems, of cherries in that garden, meet- 

 ing with a scarcity of them in all other places." Most 

 extravagant prices were indeed sometimes paid for this 

 fruit', for Mr. Thornbury tells us that in Shakespeare's 

 days, " the pretty and capricious ate cherries when they 

 were an angel [7s. Qd.~\ a pound," this too at a time when 

 the cost of a fat goose was but Is. or Is. 2d. They had 

 probably become comparatively common in neighbour- 

 ing countries by this period, for we further learn that 

 strangers arriving here " brought over things that were 

 cheap with them and dear in England, as paper, oranges i _/ 

 pippins, cherries, &c.'V~About this time too they were 

 introduced to a sister land, for according to Dr. Kitchener 

 they were first planted in Ireland by Sir Walter B/aleigh, 

 at his estate at Youghal, where some of his cherry-trees 

 were still lately to be seen. By a near connection of that 

 great man the same tree was made the subject of one of 

 the earliest pomological experiments practised in England, 

 for Sir Hugh Platt, in his " Garden of Eden," thus relates 

 an anecdote of loyal gallantry quite worthy of the rela- 

 tive of Ealeigh : " Here I will conclude," says he, " with 

 a conceit of that delicate knight, Sir Francis Carew, who, 

 for the better accomplishment of his entertainment of our 

 late Queen Elizabeth of happy memory, at his house at 

 Beddington, led her Majesty to a cherry-tree whose fruit 

 he had of purpose kept back from ripening at the least 

 one month after all cherries had taken their farewell of 

 England. This secret he performed by so raising a tent 

 or cover of canvas over the whole tree, and wetting the 

 same now and then with a scoop or horn, as the heat of 

 the weather required ; and so, by withholding the sun- 

 beams from reflecting on the berries, they grew both great 

 and were very long before they had gotten their perfect 

 cherry colour ; and when he was assured of her Majesty's 

 coming he removed the tent, and a few sunny days brought 

 them to their full maturity." It is said, too, that a means 



