Mr. J. Hardy on the Antiquity of some Border Pears. 207 



Pear" of the English. Mentzel, in his "Index," gives 

 " Worry " as a synonym, which is pretty suggestive. The 

 pears were known on the continent as "Pyra strangulatoria," 

 " Poires de etranguillon," and there is a passage descriptive 

 of their beauty and their allurement to the passer by, and 

 the surprise to which he is subjected when he attempts 

 deglutition, which appears in most of the old botanists, and 

 for which, so far as I can trace, Euellius is the primary 

 authority, and which fully reminds us of the Jedburgh 

 gardener's misadventure at Wooler Fair. The sense of it is 

 preserved in Parkinson's rather whimsical rendering. " The 

 colour likewise in some is greene or darke russet, and some 

 will be so faire, yellow, and red, that they would invite any 

 that seeth and knoweth them not to take and taste of them, 

 which then are so different from their expectations, being 

 harsh and unsavoury, that they presently out with their 

 purses and bestow this adage thereon, ' Non est semper fides 

 habenda fronti.' " But he gives them a better character in 

 the end. " Yet this harsh unsavoury fruit, though later 

 ripe than most of the manured sortes, by being in part 

 mellowed with the autumnes coldes, and the standing of 

 their juyce being pressed forth and made into Perry, doth 

 in time so alter his former quality of harshness and un- 

 savourineess, that it becommeth fully as cleere and almost 

 as pleasant as white wine."* Of this fact, doubtless, the 

 Border monks were well aware. Worlidge, 1681, commends 

 it for Perry, for which the best pears " are such as are not fit 

 to be eaten, so harsh that the swine will not eat, nay hardly 

 smell to them. The Bosbury Pear, the Horse Pear, and the 

 Choak Pear are such that bear the name of the best pears 

 for Perry."-f- 



17. Golden Knap. "When Dr. Walker wrote, there were 

 at Melrose, in Mr. Riddel's orchard, adjoining to the Abbey, 

 which had formerly been the Abbey garden, some very large 

 old fruit trees of this variety, which were known to have 

 been planted before the Reformation. One measured, in 

 September, 1795, 7 feet 2 inches in circumference ; and 

 another 7 feet 6 inches. They had been grafted trees, and 

 continued to bear plentifully. Another pear-tree of the 

 same kind had been recently cut, which measured 8 feet 10 

 inches. Almost the whole of this large trunk consisted of 



* " The Theatre of Plants," p. 1501. 

 ■ t " Systema Agriculturae," p. 140. See also Evelyn's " Pomona," p. 19. 



