PLATE XXXIII. 
3. ROYAL RUSSET. 
[Syn : Leather-Coat; Reinette de Canada grise ; Reinette de Canada Platte\. 
Justice Shallow’s House in Gloucestershire : 
“ Nay, you shall see mine orchard, where in 
an arbor we will eat a last year’s pippin of my own 
grafting, with a dish of carraways and so forth.” 
(Shakespeare “King Henry IV, Part ii , Scene. 3”). 
“ There’s a dish of leather-coats for you !” 
(“ ibid.”) 
This apple has been a favourite old English variety for time immemorial. It is mentioned by 
Lawson so early as 1597, and has been much esteemed by every writer since that period. It has 
been well figured in the Pontological Magazine , Plate 125. 
Description. —Fruit : large, three inches and a half wide, and two inches and three quarters 
high ; roundish, somewhat flattened and angular. Skin : covered with rough brown russet, which 
has a brownish tinge on the side next the sun ; the ground colour is yellowish green, but only some 
portions of it are visible. Eye : small and closed, set in a narrow and rather shallow basin. Stalk: 
half an inch long, inserted in a wide and deep cavity. Flesh : greenish yellow, tender, crisp, brisk, 
juicy, and sugary. 
A most excellent culinary apple of the first quality. It is in season from November to May, 
but is apt to shrink and become dry, unless kept in a good fruit house. Mr. Thompson 
recommends it to be kept in dry sand. 
The tree is perfectly hardy, of a very vigorous habit, and attains the largest size. It 
succeeds admirably in Herefordshire, bears very freely, and is much valued by all who have 
experienced its great merits. 
There is another apple known by the name of Leather-Coat or Old Leather-Coat , which is 
small and of a conical shape, thickly covered with rough russet. It is met with in the Gloucestershire 
orchards 
