432 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
been produced about four inches below the surface of the ground, which, 
with proper care, may become a tree, and thereby preserve the original 
of this favourite old dessert apple. The gardener at Ribston Hall, 
by whom this apple was raised, was the father of Lowe, who during 
the last [i.e. the eighteenth] century was the fruit-tree nurseryman at 
Hampton Wick." 
There is a slight discrepancy between the date given by Dr. Hogg 
as that at which the tree died and the date on the drawing, and the 
definite statement as to the raiser in the last sentence of the quotation 
hardly agrees with the indefinite character of the earlier part. 
Dr. Hogg's information as to the date was probably derived, directly 
or indirectly, from an old labourer on the estate, as appears from a note 
in " The Florist " for July 1857 (P- 202 )- I n that note the gardener, Mr. 
T. W. Abbott, quotes from an old letter written by a grandson of the 
introducer, as follows : " My grandfather, Sir Henry Goodrick, being 
at Rouen, in Normandy, in y e year 1707, he eat an Apple of very 
superior flavour, and saved y e seeds, which he sent to Ribston, where 
they were sown, and y e produce planted in y e park. Out of y e trees 
planted five proved bad and two proved good. They are growing 
yet and never were grafted, and one of these trees is y e celebrated 
Ribston Pippin " : showing that the origin of the apple as described in 
Dr. Hogg's note was at any rate a tradition among the owners of the 
estate, though the date does not coincide. The other tree said to be 
good is unknown. 
In the fifth edition of his " Fruit Manual," which appeared in 1884, 
Dr. Hogg repeats this statement without modification or addition, 
but the note just referred to tells us that the shoot mentioned in Dr. 
Hogg's account had, in 1857, reached fruiting size, and, in spite of 
its bad position, frequently bore good crops. It is still standing, but, as 
Major J. W. Dent, of Ribston Hall, writes : " It is in a cankered and 
unhealthy condition, but bears fruits, and, in some favourable years, 
quite good crops. It stands a good deal exposed in the park here, and 
suffers from cold winds in spring." 
From various sources, and especially from the planting-books of the 
famous nursery of Brompton Park, with which he was at one time 
connected, Dr. Hogg concluded that the ' Ribston Pippin ' did not 
become well known for perhaps a hundred years after its raising, but 
after that its rise in popular esteem was rapid. Our boyhood's recol- 
lection of it is that ' Ribston Pippin ' was a household word and con- 
noted the quintessence of excellence in a dessert apple, but " Alas," 
said almost everyone, " the apple is worn out. It has lost its vigour 
and is bound to succumb to the attacks of canker. Soon its fruits will 
be but a rare and pleasant memory." 
The prophets were at fault, for ' Ribston Pippin ' is still more 
than a memory, and in this poor apple season (1916), of all the 
varieties grown at Wisley, * Ribston ' was among the best for crop ; 
there the trees are perfectly healthy, and as yet no sign of canker 
foretells their doom, either in those on Paradise or those on Crab 
