PLATE LX. 
5. BLACK WORCESTER. 
[Syn : Parkinson s Warden ; Pound Pear.'\ 
The pear tree is so characteristic of the County of Worcester, that Drayton in his poetical 
marshalling of the troops of Henry V., at the Battle of Agincourt, thus describes the standard of the 
Worcestershire men :— 
“ Worcester, a pear tree, laden with its fruit.” 
An escutcheon on the Army of the City of Worcester, shows “ a fess between three pears 
sable, on a field argent." The story goes, that when Queen Elizabeth visited the City of Worcester, 
in August, 1575, the City Authorities caused a pear tree of this variety, heavily laden with fruit, to 
be taken from a garden, and planted at the gate by which her Majesty was to enter the city. The 
Queen it is said noticed the tree with admiration, and directed three pears to be added to the Arms 
of the City. This pear, though dark coloured, is not black, and it is probable, therefore, that it has 
since acquired this epithet from the sable of the escutcheon. The exact date when the pears were 
first emblazoned on the Arms of the City of Worcester is not known, nor is there a record of any 
such grant from Queen Elizabeth, in the Heralds Office : so that it is quite possible that they may 
