On Jedburgh Pears, by Mr. James Tate. 197 



tions to preserve its historic interest as far as possible. As 

 it stood originally, the tree must have had a thick trunk, 

 but in its present prostrate and decayed form measurement 

 is impossible. It had, at some period in the distant past, 

 fallen over, but from the prostrate trunk another tree had 

 grown a few feet to the eastward of the parent root ; this 

 again had fallen, and the end of the stump is easily seen 

 where it has been cut across, while a third tree has grown 

 up from the ruins, and that is now an old tree tottering to 

 its fall, but carefully propped, and still in old age bearing 

 abundant crops of fruit. From the original to the present 

 root is a distance of about fifteen feet, and that consists of 

 decayed trunks, out of which, however, new shoots are at 

 present springing. The pears are hard and green, very well 

 shaped, and forming a neat point at the junction with the 

 stalk.. At a short distance is another tree, which in a similar 

 way has travelled about twenty feet. At one extremity is 

 a Warden Pear tree, and at the other end, where the original 

 stock had been, there has sprung up an Achan Pear tree. 

 It is said that one of these trees measurer! eight-and-a-half 

 feet in girth before it had fallen down. It has been noted 

 as a curious circumstance about one of these trees, that when 

 split by a storm of wind, a large iron bolt was found in the 

 heart of it, which had probably been used formerly to keep 

 the trunk together, as it appeared to have been previously 

 split in a similar manner. The wood had grown over the 

 iron for many inches at both ends. 



Along the north side of the town is a locality called " the 

 Friars," where some gardens belonging to the monks have 

 been situated, and in which are some old pear trees. In 

 the Friars' orchard is an old Longueville tree, a kind of 

 fruit which some authorities have considered to be identical 

 with Hampden's Bergamot, but which is in reality quite 

 different. The tree in Friars' orchard has originally had a 

 thick trunk, but some years ago it was all blown over 

 except one small limb, which continued to grow, and has 

 this year a large crop of fruit. The pears are of moderately 

 large size, thick and short in form, green in colour, and 

 rough in the skin, but not yet ripe. In the same orchard 

 there is a Hessel Pear tree, the first introduced into the 

 district, and which came direct from Hull when the species 

 was imported from the Continent. The tree is not very 

 well grown, and Mr. Deans has a better specimen in his 



