4 



mon fruits of the Romans, and it is quite certain that 

 it continues so, being cultivated as a standard through- 

 out the length and breadth of the land. 



The tenderness of the tree forbids the supposition 

 that the Romans attempted its culture in Britain, nor 

 is there any record justifying us to suppose that it 

 was grown here before the reign of Henry the 8th 

 (1509 — 1546). That monarch sent his gardener, who 

 was a French priest, named Woolf, to travel on the 

 continent, especially to gain improvement in the art 

 of horticulture. He returned with the apricot and 

 other fruits to the king's garden at Nonsuch, near 

 Croydon, (Gough's Topography i. 133,) and among 

 those may have been the peach ; and thus much is 

 certain, that Tusser, a contemporary,* mentions of 

 fruits in our English gardens, three kinds of peach — 

 the white, the red, and the yellow-fleshed. It was 

 not ripened well, however, probably, for Heresbach, 

 a contemporary of Tusser, says, its hardier relative, 

 the apricot, was much preferred, being used as a 

 great dainty among noblemen." Dodoens, another 

 contemporary, says that the white and the yellow- 

 fleshed were identical. 



Gerarde, who wrote a very few years subsequently, 

 viz. in 1597, says that there were three or four kinds 

 of peach — the white fleshed — the red fleshed — the 



* His One Hundi-ed Points of Good Husbandry" was pub- 

 lished in 1557. 



