Commercial Value of Cider and Perry. 
153 
Perry. Evelyn speaks of Redstreak Cider which sold for sixpence the winequart, “ not for the 
scarcety but for the excellency of it,” and he mentions also that it was sometimes exchanged on 
equal terms for the best French wines. 
In the Household Accounts at Holme Lacy in 1662, the price of the Hogshead of Cider is 
set dowrn at £1 14s., whilst Beer cost only £1 4s. the hogshead. 
In a letter dated “ Bristoll, 20th November, 1691 ”—addressed by one Thomas Wattmore, 
a vintner, to Sir Barnabas Scudamore “ at his seate neare Citty of Herriford,” the writer states that 
he bought “ six hogshatts of Red Strike Sider and never tasted them at all but gave you a noate 
under my hand to pay 25^ 15s. 00 for them.” The Cider turned out badly and he demands a 
repayment. At the end of the letter he adds “ I bought 50 hogshatts last yeare at Dimmock and 
they are as rich as new Canary. I cannot sell bad Sidor, &c., &c.” This letter is quoted to show 
the high price of the best Cider at that time. 
It appears from the Household Accounts of the Right. Hon. James, 3rd Lord Viscount 
Scudamore, also at Holme Lacy, that in the years 1703 and 1704 apples were bought at 2s. 3d. the 
bushel, and in a bill, without date, but of about the same period, a hogshead of Red Streak Cider 
was sold for £2 10s. : hogsheads of Cider were brought from Amberley and Marden for £1 2s. 6d. 
each ; a hogshead of Golden Pippin Cider cost £ 1 7s. 6d. ; a hogshead of Quince apple cider 
£1 6s., and a hogshead of Cider from Rotherwas cost £1 5s. It may be mentioned also that 
the price of labour for cooperage, cider making, grafting, &c., was is. per day at that time. 
Batty Langley who wrote at the beginning of the 18th Century (1713) mentions that the 
Devonshire Royal Wilding, (a variety at the present time unknown in that county) “ would fetch 
five guineas per hogshead, while common Cider goeth for 20s.” 
In Herefordshire, celebrated varieties seem always to have created a market, when inferior 
ones failed to do so. Marshall mentions the Hagloe Crab and the Stire Cider as worth at the press, 
from ^5 to ^15 per hogshead, but he adds that the ordinary price of Cider “ on a par of years” is 
25/- per hogshead. In 1720 bottled cider fetched 6d. a bottle, a sum equivalent to about 3s. at this 
time. 
In Smith’s “ Dictionary of Commerce ” it is stated that in 1833-4-5 the best cider ranged 
from is. to is. 6d. the gallon :—family cider for the farmer’s own use, or for public houses 4d. to 
iod. a gallon ; whilst the Cider-kin, or water Cider of the labourer when sold, ranged from 2 p£d to 
6d. a gallon ; and these prices seem to have amply remunerated the producer. 
The market prices of Cider at the present time are as follows : For the best quality of Cider 
sold by the Manufacturers in cask, from is. to 2s. the gallon; and the same quality meets with a ready 
sale, when fresh bottled, at from 8s. and 10s. to 12s. the dozen :—for Cider of the second quality, 
to which usually more or less water has been added, for family use on draught from the cask, at from 
8d. to iod. the gallon, according to its quality : whilst the common Cider for farm house use, 
varies from 4d. to 8d. The price of Perry ranges from 6d. to 1/6 the gallon. 
These prices are those which generally prevail immediately after production ; but for special 
varieties of fruit, and for Cider a few years in bottle, the prices are much greater. At a publick 
auction a short time since, Foxwhelp Cider was sold freely at 30s. a dozen— Taynton Squash Perry 
fetched 28s. a dozen,—and either of these varieties, and some others too of good age and 
