38 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
These were still being paid annually in the ninth year 
of Edward II. One other kind of pear, the “ Janettar,” 
is noted in one of the Wardrobe accounts in the thirty-sixth 
year of the reign of Henry III., as being bought with 
“ sorells f and “ cailloels ” from “ John the Fruiterer of 
London.” 1 
Besides these fruits, which appear to have been common, 
there were a few choicer sorts, such as cherries, mulberries, 
medlars, and even peaches. If proof were needed that this 
latter fruit was to be had in England, we have it in the fact 
that King John, at Newark, in the midst of his despair and 
disappointment, hastened his end by a surfeit of peaches and 
ale. 2 Figs were also no doubt grown in the warmer places, as 
the fig-tree was known in Saxon times, though they are not 
frequently mentioned. Tradition attributes the planting of 
the large tree in the fig-gardens at West Tarring, near Worthing, 
to Thomas a Becket. 
The various accounts which have been quoted, although 
tedious from their sameness, are nearly the only trustworthy 
sources of information about the fruits and gardens of this 
period. To supply such large quantities of fruit, there must 
have been extensive orchards. It is impossible to imagine that 
the fruiterer to the King procured the thousands of apples and 
pears required for his royal master from France, although a 
few may have come from abroad. By the early part of the 
fourteenth century, many fine and old-established gardens and 
orchards must have existed in this country, and were being 
cultivated, not by the religious orders only, but under many 
secular owners of land. Gardens were being made around the 
various colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, then coming into 
existence. Trinity Hall, Cambridge, had a good garden, with 
vines and “ herbaria,” within a short time of its foundation, 
and Peterhouse a few years earlier. The gardens round 
London have already been noticed; something further about 
them might be gained by searching old leases. The following 
sample gives some idea of the number of gardens in one part of 
1 Exchequer Q. R., Ancient MiscelL, Wardrobe and Household 
Account, -^2• R. O. 
2 Chronicle of Roger of Wendover. 
