194 On Jedburgh Pears, by Mr. James Tate. 



these fifty years past yielded the interest of the money paid 

 for the gardens where it stands and for a house let at £7 

 yearly. Another tree has carried fruit to the amount of £3 

 sterling annually at an average for the same period. In the 

 year 1793, two trees there brought to perfection about 

 60,000 pears, which were sold for eight guineas."* 



In a work " On the Gardens and Orchards of Scotland," 

 by Mr. P. Neill, drawn up for the Board of Agriculture in 

 1813, there is the following reference to Jedburgh Pears : — 

 " It may be remarked, as a curious fact, that in Scot- 

 land there are many more of the line sorts of French Pears 

 to be found in ordinary gardens, than in England. This is 

 probably to be ascribed to the early introduction of these 

 kinds by the rich and luxurious clergy ; for the monkish 

 establishments in Scotland were in general more splendid 

 and more magnificently endowed than those of England."f 

 " The oldest of the Jedburgh orchards having been originally 

 laid out by the clergy during the flourishing state of the 

 Abbey, there still remains a number of very old trees, 

 chiefly pears of French origin. They are generally of a 

 large size ; several are from thirty to forty feet high, with 

 huge trunks and wide-spreading branches. One tree, a Red 

 Honey Pear, is of pre-eminent bulk, rising between fifty and 

 sixty feet, with a bole measuring nine feet in circumference. 

 Many of the oldest trees are now, however, much decayed, 

 and supported with props ; but even in this state they 

 sometimes carry great crops. The kinds are the Auchan, 

 Longueville, Crawford, Lammas, Warden, Bonchretien, 

 Bergamot, Gallert, and Jargonelle. Of these, the Warden 

 has most successfully stood the ravages of time ; or, at least, 

 it proves most prolific in its old age, a single tree of this 

 sort having been known, in favourable seasons, to produce 

 from thirty to forty bushels. The Warden is, however, 

 only a baking pear, and consequently does not bring much 

 money at the market ; for in Scotland pears are in general 

 considered as dessert, not as kitchen fruit. Some of the 

 Bonchretien trees are likewise of great size, and in tolerable 

 preservation : they produce good crops, but the fruit is of 

 inferior size. Besides those kinds which have been men- 

 tioned, Jedburgh orchards contain the St. Catharine, Green 

 Chisel, Drummond, Grey Gudwife, Pound Pear, Green 

 Honey, Mother Cobe, and Green Yair. When some of the 



* P. 117. t P- 125. 



