132 FAMILIAR TREES 
whilst Gerard says of them that “the stocke or 
kindred of Pears are not to be numbered; every 
country hath his peculiar fruit, so that to describe 
them apart were to send an owle to Athens, or to 
number things that are without number.” 
Among the Pears of the sixteenth century were 
the Popering Pear, mentioned by Mercutio in Romeo 
and Juliet, probably a Flemish variety, named from 
Popering in Flanders, and possibly introduced by 
Leland the antiquary, who was made Rector of 
Popering by Henry VIII.; and the Warden or Luke- 
wards Pear. This last-mentioned variety seemingly 
originated in the horticultural skill of the Cistercians 
of Warden Abbey, in Bedfordshire, which was founded 
in the twelfth century. Three of these fruits appear 
in the arms of the Abbey. They were probably called 
Lukewards from ripening about October 18th (St. 
Luke’s Day), and were eaten in the “ Warden pies” 
coloured with saffron (as we now colour stewed Pears 
with cochineal), to which allusion is made in A 
Winter's Tale. More than two hundred and fifty 
sorts were known at the end of the eighteenth century, 
and nearly seven hundred in 1831. 
The most remarkable cultivated Pear-tree in 
England is probably that at Holme Lacy in Here- 
fordshire, which by the rooting of its branches once 
covered more than an acre of ground, and produced 
as much as fourteen hogsheads of perry in the year. 
In a wild state the Pear is but a small tree, some- 
times a mere shrub, more often twenty feet high than 
forty; but its rough bark, its upright growth and 
pyramidal shape, with pendulous boughs, give it a 
