THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 3 1 



beginnings in England, then, in the monasteries established under the 

 Normans. 



Pressed for an exact date as to when the pear began to be cultivated 

 in England, the historians would be troubled to name one. There is a 

 plan of the monastery of Canterbury made in 1 165 which shows an orchard 

 and a vineyard. History, moreover, relates that armed men collected in 

 an orchard to take hand in the murder of Thomas Becket in 1 170. Men in 

 those days set small store by written accounts, and history must be helped 

 out by imagination, and we may imagine that there were pears in this 

 orchard. 



Pears by this time had become common, for there are records of varieties 

 to a considerable number and in large quantities which could have been 

 had only from rather extensive orchards. Mrs. Evelyn Cecil : publishes 

 documents from the Record office of England which contain items of 

 pears bought for Henry III and Edward I at different times in the thirteenth 

 century, the first date being " probably for the year 1223." The pears 

 appear to be of French origin, and the varieties are Caloels, Pesse Pesceles, 

 Ruler, and Martyns. In a later memorandum, 1292-93, still other varieties 

 are named as the Regul, Calwel, Dieyer, Sorell, Chryfall, and Gold Knoper. 

 The pears were sold by the hundred and were used for desert, though " pears 

 in syrup " and pears for cider are mentioned. The perusal of these docu- 

 ments, printed in considerable detail in Mrs. Cecil's admirable book, enables 

 us to fix the beginning of commercial pear culture in England at as early 

 a date as 1200. 



Passing by several other references from records and financial accounts 

 of monasteries in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as too vague to be 

 of importance, although they make certain that the pear was rather widely 

 cultivated in England in these two centuries, we come at last to a noteworthy 

 landmark in pear history in England, the introduction of the Warden pear, 

 which may be put at the conveniently vague date of the end of the fourteenth 

 century, 1388 being the first year they are mentioned. 



" Warden " was a name used for centuries to designate a group of 

 pear varieties having crisp, firm flesh and which were used for culinary 

 purposes. Their history runs back to the Cistercian Abbey of Warden in 

 Bedfordshire and to a date earlier than 1388. Warden pears were favorites 

 for centuries for pies and pastries which every early cook-book contained 

 recipes for making. In the early English literature they are considered a 



1 A Hist, of Card, in Eng. 35-37. 1910. 



