336 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



The service-tree is still occasionally to be met with in 

 the hedge-rows in Kent, and in the wealds of Sussex, 

 of the size of a moderate oak-tree ; as also in the north 

 of England and Wales. 



The service-berry, which is an umbilicated fruit, par- 

 takes of the quality of the medlar, both in the green 

 and in the ripe state. It is gathered in bunches, and put 

 into, or hung on, a cleft stick of about a yard long, 

 which becomes a mass of berries : in this state the fruit 

 is sold by the country people, and then hung up in a 

 garden to receive the damp air of the night, which 

 causes it to undergo a kind of putrefactive fermentation, 

 and in this soft state it is eaten, and has a more agreeable 

 acid than the medlar. Chancellor Bacon speaks of ser- 

 vice-berries in his time as a garden fruit. In Italy and 

 the south of France, they are still served up in the 

 dessert. 



Perhaps the great size of the service-tree has been the 

 cause of excluding this fruit from our gardens : but it is, 

 from its beauty, particularly when in blossom, a desira- 

 ble tree for planting in parks or paddocks ; and as the 

 timber is so valuable, and now become so rare, we hope 

 to see it more cultivated. There is a remarkable fine 

 tree of this kind now growing at Kingsfold farm, in the 

 parish of Rusper, near Horsham in Sussex. 



It is known that many noblemen and gentlemen object 

 to fruit-bearing trees being planted on their estates, on 

 the principle that it encourages depredators to injure 

 their plantations : but this seems but a poor excuse for 

 depriving themselves and the public of the beauty and 

 variety which the blossoms give at one season of the 

 year, and the fruit at another, particularly to those who 

 have park-keepers or bailiffs on the premises. 



A great number of large service-trees grow wild about 

 Aubigny in France, whence the late Duke 'of Richmond 



