20 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



poma hoc anno." 1412 was another bad apple year, and no 

 cider was made at Abingdon, and the not unfrequent purchase 

 of apples and pears for the use of some of the monasteries shows 

 they did not always grow sufficient for their consumption, 

 although in some years there was enough and to spare. 1 The 

 Wardon pear, which was such a favourite for many centuries, 

 originated at the Cistercian monastery of that name in Bedford- 

 shire, and they bore three Wardon pears for the arms of the 

 house. 2 It was a kind of cooking pear, and every early cookery- 

 book contains recipes for " Wardon pies," or " pasties." They 

 are usually mentioned quite as a distinct fruit, as " apples, 

 pears, Wardons, and quinces," because they were the best- 

 known variety, and are even specified as a " quit rent," land 

 having been held by the payment of three " Wardon Peryz " 

 yearly at Christmas. 3 



Some of the orchards must have been of considerable size. 

 In the time of King John the grant of land to Llanthony Priory 

 included twelve acres of orchard. An oft-quoted example to 

 prove the early existence of orchards is a Bull of Pope Alex- 

 ander III., dated 1175, confiscating the property of the monks 

 of Winchenley, in Gloucestershire, with the " town of S wiring 

 and all its orchards/' 



The cherry was a popular fruit in this country from the 

 date of the introduction of garden varieties by the Romans. 

 The " ciris beam," or cherry-tree, continued to be grown in 

 early Saxon times. In the twelfth century it was one of the 

 fruit-trees praised by Necham, Abbot of Cirencester, in his 

 poem, " De laudibus divine Sapiential," and this fruit was 

 not forgotten in any monastic garden. 



At Norwich, besides the " Pomerium," the appleyard or 

 orchard, there was a " cherry 5erd," or, as it is called in another 

 place, " orto cersor," or cherry-garden, and in spite of this addi- 

 tional cherries had to be bought " for the convent " from time to 



1 Gardeners' Accounts, Abingdon, 1388, " Et de xiii s. iiii d. de cicera 

 vendita per estimation^ et de xxxii s.^vi d. ob. de fructibus venditis 

 viz. : pomis wardon et nucibus." 



2 Dugdale, Monast., vol. v., p. 371, says they were also called Abbot's 

 pears, but assigns no authority. 



3 Land granted to Roger Barf ot and Margaret his wife, of Wikemere 

 8th Richard II. Ancient Deeds Record Office, A9011. 



