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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
{ December 26, 1878. 
soil and climate.” —(“ Vita Agric.” 12.) There can be still less 
doubt that the Romans as they settled down in Britain brought 
with them the varieties of fruit they had been accustomed to 
use in Italy, though there is no distinct record of their having 
done so. They ever loved to surround themselves with the 
plants of their own country, and it is to them we owe the 
introduction of the Elm, the Box, the Walnut, the Cherry, and 
the Pear. The coarse pot herb Alexanders (Smyrnium olu- 
satrum) is generally found in the neighbourhood of Roman 
earthworks, and unwittingly they brought the Roman Nettle 
{Urtica pilulifera), which still haunts some of the ruined 
Roman stations in England. From the country in which the 
Romans settled the fruit there would gradually spread through 
the country. In the third century the Romans obtained per- 
mission, it is said, of the Emperor Probus to introduce the 
Vine into Britain, and soon made wine from the fruit. 
It is natural to suppose also that as the native inhabitants 
receded before the invaders, they too would carry with them 
their own varieties of Apples into the most remote districts of 
the country. The Druidical legends—for such evidence as 
they may afford, support this idea. Ata later period, during 
the fifth and sixth centuries, there is some indirect evidence to 
show that this was the case. The native Britons sought refuge 
from the Saxons amongst the mountains of Wales, and many 
of them fled from thence to the north-western coast of France, 
called Armorica, which in consequence of this emigration 
received the name of Brittany, which it has since retained. 
#rom Wales they carried with them their Apple trees, and one 
remarkable instance of their having done so is recorded in the 
“Liber Landayensis.” It is thus mentioned by Montalembert 
in his “ Les Moines d’Occident,” which, translated, says : 
“When St. Brieuc and his eighty monks from Great Britain 
danded in Armorica (Brittany), and marked the site on which 
the town which bears his name was afterwards built :” they 
acted just as the soldiers of Cesar did in the forests sacred to 
the Druids. ‘“ They. first surveyed the ancient woods with 
curiosity,” says the chronicle: “they hunted everywhere 
through them, and finding a branching valley with pleasant 
shade and a stream of clear water running through it, they all 
set to work... . frequently replacing the trees of the forest 
by fruit trees, like the British monk Teilo, who planted with 
his own hands, aided by St. Samson, an immense orchard—a 
true forest of fruit trees—three miles in extent in the neigh- 
bourhood of Dél.’”’—(Book vi. p. 394.) Teilo was the son of 
Tegwedd, who was also the mother of Bishop Afan of Bualle 
{Builth). She is said to have suffered martyrdom at Llandeg- 
veth, near Caerleon. Teilo received his religious education at 
this college of Iltutus, or Illtyd, situated at the village now 
known as Llantwit Major in Glamorganshire. Teilo succeeded 
Dubricius in the see of Llandaff; and on the death of St. David 
he was appointed to the see-of Menevia (St. David’s). He 
placed his nephew Ishmael there as suffragan, and continued 
himself at Llandaff, with the title of Archbishop. “He is 
known as one of the three blessed visitors of the Isle of 
Britain, Dewi (St. David’s) and Padarn being the other two. 
They were so called from the zeal with which they preached 
the faith in Christ, to rich and poor alike, without fee or 
reward, and from their deeds of charity.’’—(‘“ Williams’ 
Cymry,” p. 133.) 
Samson was bishop of D6l, but it seems there were two 
bishops of Dél of the same name, and both were educated at 
the college at Iltutus. In early life Teilo passed over to 
Armorica and spent some years with his old fellow student, 
Bishop Samson of Dél. ‘The “ Liber Landayensis” says, “St 
Teilo also left there another testimony of his patronage, for he 
and the aforesaid Samson planted a great grove of fruit-bear- 
‘ing trees to the extent of three miles, that is front Dé6l as far 
as Cai, and these woods are honoured with their names until 
the present day, for they are called the “ Groves of Teilo and 
Samson.’’—(‘‘ Liber Landavensis. Llfr. Teilo. Welsh M.S. Soc.” 
chap. li. p. 346.) This orchard still existed in the twelfth 
century under the name of “ Arboretum Teliayi et Samsonis.” 
(“Vie St. Brieuc,” by the Canon of La Devison, 1627, cited by 
La Bordérie). Tradition states that the planting of this 
orchard first led to the manufacture of cider in Normandy, 
and certainly no notice of it is to be found until some cen- 
turies afterwards, when the cider of Normandy began to attain 
the celebrity it afterwards gained. Teilo died A.D. 540, and 
was succeeded at Llandaff by his nephew Oudoceos, also a 
person of eminent sanctity. Samson died A.D. 599. There 
are twelve churches in the diocese of St. David’s founded by 
St. Teilo, or dedicated to him, of which Landeilo Fdwr in Car- 
marthenshire is the principal. In the diocese of Llandaff the 
cathedral is cedicated to St. Teilo and St. Peter, and there are 
five other churches, including Llanarth, Llandeilo Cresseney, 
and Llandeilo Pertholly in Monmouthshire. 
In the Sarum Missal there is a special blessing for Apples, 
which is appointed to be used on St. James’ day, July 25th, 
but this form does not appear either in the Missal or Breviaries 
of the Hereford use. 
It must also be mentioned that it is a common belief in the 
midland counties that Apples are not fit to be cooked until 
they have been christened by the showers of St. Swithin on 
July 15th. 
From the time of the conyersion of the Anglo-Saxons to 
Christianity, and for many succeeding centuries, eyen as late 
as the fourteenth century, the cultivation of fruit was chiefly 
carried on by the ecclesiastics. The monks were men of peace 
and study, and living in retired spots depended upon their 
gardens for much of their food. Through ages of war and 
bloodshed they pursued their peaceful ayocations and cultivated 
the soil with sedulous industry. Many a monk like Scott's 
Abbot Bonniface of Kennequhair has found great pleasure in 
the Pears and Apples he had grafted with his own hands. 
The abbey garden is always observed to occupy the best and 
most sheltered situation that could be found; and by their 
foreign connections the monks were enabled to obtain from 
more favourable climates, not only better kinds of vegetables 
and more choice fruits for their own delectation, but also 
valuable medicinal herbs for the treatment of the sick poor in 
their neighbourhood. The ruins of most of the old abbeys 
afford to this day proofs of the care bestowed by their former 
inhabitants in introducing foreign plants. From the gardens 
attached to these institutions they have often been found by 
botanists to wander into the neighbouring fields and woods. 
Asarabacca (Asarum europeum) recently found by the Wool- 
hope Club in the Forest of Deerfold is one of these medicinal 
plants. Thorn Apple (Datura Stramonium), Belladonna 
(Atropa Belladonna), Stinking Groundsel (Senecio squalidus), 
the plant always grown in nunnery gardens (Aristolochia cle- 
matitis), are other examples; and more mght be mentioned. 
As early as 674 there is a record that Brithnot, the first abbot 
of Ely, laid out extensive gardens and orchards which “he 
planted with a great variety of herbs, shrubs, and fruit trees. 
In a few years the trees which he planted and engrafted 
appeared at a distance like a wood, loaded with the most 
excellent fruits in great abundance, and added much to the 
commodiousness and beauty of the place.” —(‘ Hist. Eliens. 
apud Gale,” lib. ii. c. 2.) _ 
“The Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales,” published by 
the Commissioners of Public Records in 1841, which comprise 
the laws supposed to haye been enacted by Howel Dda about 
the early part of the tenth century, modified by subsequent 
regulations under the Princes of Wales previously to the sub- 
jugation of Wales by Edward I. (1283), give several references 
to the great value of Apple trees. 
In the Dull Gwynedd, the “ Venedotian,” or “ North Wales 
Code,” book iii. chapter 20, is entitled, as rendered in the 
English translation, ‘On the worth of Trees this treats :”— 
“ Section 8.—‘ Every tree that shall bear fruit is of the same 
worth as the entire Hazel grove, excepting the Oak and the Apple 
tree.’ (Mem. A Hazel grove was valued at twenty-four pence.) _ 
“Section 9.— A graft four pence without augmentation until 
the calends of winter after it is grafted.’ 7 
“Section 10.—‘ And thenceforward an increase of two pence is 
added every season until it shall bear fruit, and then it 1s three 
score pence in value, and so it graduates in value as a cow’s calf.’ 
“Section 11—‘A sour Crab tree is four pence in value until it 
bear fruit.’ i : 
“Section 12—‘ And after it bears fruit it is thirty pence in 
value.’” 
There is no reference to the Apple tree in “The Ancient 
Institutes of England.” } 
Im an alleged account of the “ Antient Saxon rite of corona- 
tion as recorded in the time of Edgar” (959-975), the follow- 
ing passage is given as forming part of the blessing pronounced 
by the archbishop or bishop at a Saxon coronation :— 
“May the Almighty Lord give thee, O King, from the dew of 
heaven and the fatness of the earth, abundance of corn and wine 
and oil. Be thou the Lord of thy brothers, and let the sons of 
thy Mother bow down before thee ; Jet. the people serve thee, and 
the tribes adore thee. May the Almighty bless thee with the 
blessings of heaven above, and the mountains and the valleys ; 
with the blessings of the deep below ; with the blessings of Grapes 
and Apples.” 
