[Plate I. 
THE FOX-WHELP APPLE. 
“ Cider for strength and a long-lasting drink is best made of the Fox-whelp of the Forest of 
Deane, but which comes not to be drunk till two or three years old .”—(Appendix to Evelyn?s “ Pomona .” 
Edit. 1706). 
The Fox-whelp Apple is the favourite cider Apple of Herefordshire. Its origin and its 
singular name are alike obscure. 
The earliest record we have of the Fox-whelp is by Evelyn in his “ Pomona!' which is an 
Appendix to the Sylva “ concerning fruit trees in relation to cider.” This was first published in 
1664, and at that time and long after, the great Apple of Plerefordshire was the Red-streak. The 
Fox-whelp is disposed of in a few words—“ Some commend the Fox-whelp.” Ralph Austen, who 
wrote in 1653, makes no mention of it when he says, “ Let the greatest number of fruit trees not 
onely in the orchards but also in the feilds be Pear-maines, Pippins, Gennet-Moyles, Red-streaks, 
and such kinds as are knowne by much experience to be especiall good for cider.” Neither is any 
notice taken of it by Dr. Beale in his “ Herefordshire Orchards , written in an epistolary address to 
Samuel Hartlib, Esq.,” in 1656. 
The hrst notice of it after Evelyn is by Worledge in 1676, who merely says, “The Fox-whelp 
is esteemed among the choice cider fruits.” In Evelyn’s time it seems to have been regarded as a 
native of Gloucestershire, for Dr. Smith in the “ Pomona ” when writing of “the best fruit (with us 
in Gloucestershire)” says, “ the cider of the Bromsbury Crab and Fox-whelp is not fit for drinking 
till the second year, but then very good and in the quotation at the head of this paper “ A person 
of great experience” calls it “the Fox-whelp of the Forest of Deane.” 
