APPLES. 91 



GOLDEN PIPPIN ( American Plate ; P.aljmie Pippin ; Pxiijfonllnmj 

 Pippin; Herefordshire Golden Pippin: London Golden Pippin: 

 Milton (initial Pippin: Russet Golden Pippin ; Wartfr'* Golden 

 Pippin}. Fruit, small, two inches wide, and about the same in height; 

 roundish, inclining to oblong, regularly and handsomely shaped, without 

 inequalities or angles on the sides. Skin, rich yellow, assuming a deep 

 golden tinge when perfectly ripe, with a deeper tinge where it has been 

 exposed to the sun ; the whole surface is strewed with russety dots, 

 which are largest on the sunny side, and intermixed with these arc 

 numerous imbedded pearly specks. Eye, small and open, with long 

 segments, placed in a shallow, smooth, and even basin. Stamens, 

 median or marginal ; tube, funnel-shaped. Stalk, from half an inch to 

 an inch in length, inserted in a pretty deep cavity. Flesh, yellow, firm, 

 crisp, very juicy, and sweet, with a brisk vinous and particularly fine 

 flavour. Cells, ovate, pointed ; axife, closed. 



This is one of the oldest and one of the most highly esteemed of 

 our dessert apples. It is in season from November till April. The 

 tree is a healthy grower, attaining about the middle size, and it is an 

 excellent bearer. When grown on the dwarfing stocks it makes hand- 

 some bushes and espaliers. 



It is uncertain where the Golden Pippin originated, but all writers are agreed in 

 calling it an English varieiy, and some state that it was raised at Purhuni Park, 

 near Arundel, in Sussex. 



Although it is not recorded at so early a period as some others, there is no doubt 

 it is very old. It is not, however, the " Golden Pippin " of Parkinson, fur he says 

 " it is the greatest and best of all sorts of Pippins." It was perhaps this circum- 

 stance that led Mr. Knight to remark, that from the description Parkinson has 

 given of the apples cultivated in his time, it is evident that those now known by 

 the same names are different, and probably new varieties. But this is not evidence 

 of such being the case, lor I find there were two sorts of Golden Pippin, the *' Great 

 Golding," and the " Small Golding, or Bayford," both of which are mentioned by 

 Leonard Meager, and there is no doubt that the " Golden Pippin " of Parkinson 

 was the " Great Golding." Ralph Austin calls it " a very speciall apple and great 

 bearer." Evelyn states that Lord Clarendon cultivated it, but it was only as a 

 cider apple; for he says, " at Lord Clarendon's seat at Swallowfield, Berks, there 

 is an orchard of 1,000 Golden and other cider Pippins." In his Treatise on Cider 

 lie frequently notices it as a cider apple; but never in any place that I can recollect 

 of as a dessert fruit. In the Pomona, he says, ' About London and the southern 

 tracts, the Pippin, and especially the Golden, is esteemed for making the most 

 delicious cider, most wholesome, and most restorative." Switzer calls it " the most 

 antient, as well as most excellent apple that is." 



Towards the end of last century Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight entertained a 

 theory that the Golden Pippin, and all the old varieties of English apples, were in 

 the last stage of decay, and that a few years would witness their total extinction. 

 This belief he founded upon the degenerate state of these varieties in the Here- 

 fordshire orchards, and the opinion that no variety of apple will continue to exist 

 longer than 200 years, after which period the original tree and all its progeny will 

 fall to decay. It would be needless to enter into any further discussion upon a 

 subject concerning which so much has already been said and written, as there is 

 sufficient evidence to confute that theory. The Pearmain, which is the oldest 

 English apple on record, shows no symptom of decay, neither do the Catshead, 

 London Pippin, or Winter Quoining, those only of the old varieties having dis- 

 appeared from our orchards which were not worth perpetuating, their places being 

 supplied by others infinitely superior. 



