12 
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE APPLE AND PEAR. 
A shrivelled apple is amongst the remains of the Lake cities of Switzerland. 
“ Time rolls on his ceaseless course. The race of yore, 
* * * * * * * 
******* 
How are they blotted from the things that be.” 
Scott — Lady of the Lake , iii. i. 
From the time of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, and for many succeeding 
centuries, even as late as the fourteenth century, the cultivation of fruit was chiefly carried on by 
the Ecclesiastics. The monks were men of peace and study, and living in retired spots, depended 
upon their gardens for much of their food. Through ages of war and bloodshed they pursued 
their peaceful avocations and cultivated the soil with sedulous industry. Many a monk like Scott’s 
Abbot Bonniface of Kennequhair, has found great pleasure in the pears and apples he had grafted 
with his own hands. The “Abbey Garden” is always observed to occupy the best and most 
sheltered situation that could be found, and by their foreign connections the monks were enabled to 
obtain, from more favourable climates, not only better kinds of vegetables and more choice fruits 
for their own delectation; but also valuable medicinal herbs for the treatment of the sick poor in 
their neighbourhood. The ruins of most of the old Abbeys afford, to this day, proofs of the care 
bestowed by their former inhabitants in introducing foreign plants. From the gardens attached to 
these Institutions, they have often been found by botanists to wander into the neighbouring fields 
and woods; Asarabacca ( Asarum Europceum) recently found by the Woolhope Club in the Forest 
of Deerfold, is one of these medicinal plants: Thorn apple ( Datura Stramonium ); Belladonna ( Atropa 
Belladonna) ; stinking Groundsell ( Senecio squalidus ); the plant always grown in nunnery gardens, 
( Aristolochia clematitis ) are other examples; and more might be mentioned. As early as 674, there 
is a record that Brithnot the first Abbot of Ely, laid out extensive gardens and orchards, which 
“he planted with a great variety of herbs, shrubs, and fruit trees. In a few years, the trees which 
he planted and engrafted appeared at a distance like a wood, loaded with the most excellent fruits, 
in great abundance, and added much to the commodiousness and beauty of the place.” Hist. Eliens, 
apud. Gale , L. ii. c. 2. 
“ The ancient laws and Institutes of Wales,” published by the Commissioners of Public 
Records in 1841, which comprise the laws supposed to have been enacted by Howel Dda, about the 
early part of the tenth Century, modified by subsequent regulations under the Princes of Wales, 
previously to the subjugation of Wales by Edward I. (1283), give several references to the great 
value of apple trees. 
In the Dull Gwynedd, the Venedotian, or North Wales Code, Book III., Chapter 20, is 
entitled, as rendered in the English translation, “On the worth of Trees this treats 
Section 8.—“ Every tree that shall bear fruit is of the same worth as the entire hazel grove, excepting the oak and 
the apple tree.” (Mem. A hazel grove was valued at twenty four pence). 
Section 9.—“ A graft four pence without augmentation until the calends of winter after it is grafted.” 
Section 10.—“And thenceforward an increase of two pence is added every season until it shall bear fruit, and then 
it is three score pence in value, and so it graduates in value as a cow’s calf.” 
Section 11.—A sour crab tree is four pence in value until it bear fruit.” 
Section 12.—“ And after it bears fruit it is thirty pence in value.” 
