THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 31 
beginnings in England, then, in the monasteries established under the 
Normans. 
Pressed for an exact date as to when the pear began to be cultivated 
in England, the historians would be troubled to name one. There is a 
plan of the monastery of Canterbury made in 1165 which shows an orchard 
and a vineyard. History, moreover, relates that armed men collected in 
an orchard to take hand in the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170. Men in 
those days set small store by written accounts, and history must be helped 
out by imagination, and we may imagine that there were pears in this 
orchard. 
Pears by this time had become common, for there are records of varieties 
to a considerable number and in large quantities which could have been 
had only from rather extensive orchards. Mrs. Evelyn Cecil! publishes 
documents from the Record office of England which contain items of 
pears bought for Henry III and Edward I at different times in the thirteenth 
century, the first date being ‘‘ probably for the year 1223.” The pears 
appear to be of French origin, and the varieties are Caloels, Pesse Pesceles, 
Ruler, and Martyns. Ina later memorandum, 1292-93, still other varieties 
are named as the Regul, Calwel, Dieyer, Sorell, Chryfall, and Gold Knoper. 
The pears were sold by the hundred and were used for desert, though ‘“‘ pears 
in syrup ’’ and pears for cider are mentioned. The perusal of these docu- 
ments, printed in considerable detail in Mrs. Cecil’s admirable book, enables 
us to fix the beginning of commercial pear culture in England at as early 
a date as 1200. 
Passing by several other references from records and financial accounts 
of monasteries in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as too vague to be 
of importance, although they make certain that the pear was rather widely 
cultivated in England in these two centuries, we come at last to a noteworthy 
landmark in pear history in England, the introduction of the Warden pear, 
which may be put at the conveniently vague date of the end of the fourteenth 
century, 1388 being the first year they are mentioned. 
“Warden ’’ was a name used for centuries to designate a group of 
pear varieties having crisp, firm flesh and which were used for culinary 
purposes. Their history runs back to the Cistercian Abbey of Warden in 
Bedfordshire-and to a date earlier than 1388. Warden pears were favorites 
for centuries for pies and pastries which every early cook-book contained 
recipes for making. In the early English literature they are considered a 
1A Hist. of Gard. in Eng. 35-37. 1910. 
