132 FAMILIAR TREES 



whilst Gerard says of them that " the stocke or 

 kindred of Pears are not to be numbered ; every 

 country hath his peculiar fruit, so that to describe 

 them apart were to send an owle to Athens, or to 

 number things that are without number." 



Among the Pears of the sixteenth century were 

 the Popering Pear, mentioned by Mercutio in Romeo 

 and Juliet, probably a Flemish variety, named from 

 Popering in Flanders, and possibly introduced by 

 Leland the antiquary, who was made Rector of 

 Popering by Henry VIII. ; and the Warden or Luke- 

 wards Pear. This last-mentioned variety seemingly 

 originated in the horticultural skill of the Cistercians 

 of Warden Abbey, in Bedfordshire, which was founded 

 in the twelfth century. Three of these fruits appear 

 in the arms of the Abbey. They were probably called 

 Luke wards from ripening about October 18th (St. 

 Luke's Day), and were eaten in the " Warden pies " 

 coloured with saffron (as we now colour stewed Pears 

 with cochineal), to which allusion is made in A 

 Winters Tale. More than two hundred and fifty 

 sorts were known at the end of the eighteenth century, 

 and nearly seven hundred in 1831. 



The most remarkable cultivated Pear-tree in 

 England is probably that at Holme Lacy in Here- 

 fordshire, which by the rooting of its branches once 

 covered more than an acre of ground, and produced 

 as much as fourteen hogsheads of perry in the year. 



In a wild state the Pear is but a small tree, some- 

 times a mere shrub, more often twenty feet high than 

 forty ; but its rough bark, its upright growth and 

 pyramidal shape, with pendulous boughs, give it a 



