8 



for in tlie Welcli, Cornish, Arraorican, and Irish lan- 

 guages and dialects, it is denominated the Avail or 

 Aball. The fruit therefore had a native name, from 

 which our present name apple is evidently corrupted, 

 and the Hcsdui, inhabitants of the modern Somerset- 

 shire, appear especially to have cultivated this fruit. 

 Their chief town even derived its name form the cir- 

 cumstance of its being surrounded by plantations of 

 the apple, for it was known as xlvallonia (Apple 

 Orchard) when first visited by the Romans. Glas- 

 tonbury stands upon its ancient site. {RicharcTs 

 Chron, 19.) The cultivation of the apple was not 

 confined to our south-western districts, for another 

 town named after it, Avallana, was in the north of 

 England, and in the course of the third century we 

 have decisive testimony that the Roman settlers had 

 introduced fresh varieties of this fruit, and that its 

 cultivation had become so extended that large apple 

 orchards had been made as far north as the Shetland 

 Islands. (Solinus, cap. xxii.) Traces of ancient 

 orchards are still existing in those high northern loca- 

 lities, and one in the Hebrides, belonging to the Mon- 

 astery of St. Columb, is described by Dr. "W^alker as 

 having existed there, probably, from the 6th century. 

 {Essays, ii. 5.) Others are mentioned by Camden 

 and Leland. It is quite certain that in the middle 

 ages the apple had become one of our staple vegetable 

 products, for whenever the chroniclers speak of times 



