18 A HISTORY OF GARDEXIXG IN ENGLAND. 



considering, the monks within the quiet cloister, week by week 

 and year by year, supphed the best flowers their skill and 

 knowledge could produce, to adorn their churches and chapels. 



But to return to the consideration of the department of the 

 gardinarius. He had more than the garden under his care, for 

 his jurisdiction extended over both the orchard and vineyard. 



The orchard, or " pomerium," supplied not only apples and 

 pears for eating and cooking, but also apples for cider. Large 

 quantities of cider were made each year, except when in an 

 unusually bad season the apple crop failed. This was the case 

 in 1352, when the Almoner at Winchester made the following 

 note in his accounts, " Et de ciserat nihil quia non fuerunt 

 poma hoc anno." 1412 was another bad apple year, and no 

 cider was made at Abingdon, and the not unfrequent purchase of 

 apples and pears for the use of some of the monasteries, shows 

 they did not always grow sufficient for their consumption, 

 although in some years there was enough and to spare."^ The 

 Wardon pear, which was such a favourite for many centuries, 

 originated at the Cistercian monastery of that name in Bedford- 

 shire, and they bore three Wardon pears for the arms of the 

 house. t It was a kind of cooking pear, and every early cookery- 

 book contains receipes for " \\"ardon pies," or pasties. They 

 are usuall}^ mentioned quite as a distinct fruit, as "apples, pears, 

 Wardons, and quinces," because they were the best known 

 variety. 



Some of the orchards must have been of considerable size. 

 In the time of King John the grant of land to Lanthony Priory 

 included twelve acres of orchard. An oft-quoted example to 

 prove the early existence of orchards is a Bull of Pope 

 Alexander III., dated 1175, confiscating the property of the 

 monks of Winchenle}^ in Gloucestershire, with the " town of 

 Swiring and all its orchards." 



The cherry was, from the date of its introduction by the 



* Gardener's Accounts, Abingdon, 1388, " Et de xiiis. iiii d. di cicera vendita 

 per estimacione et de xxxii s. \i d. ob de fructibus venditis, \\z. : poniis wardon 

 et nucibus." 



t Dugdale, Moiiasf., Vol. V., p. 371, says they were also called Abbot's 

 pears, but assigns no authority. 



