130 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
The varieties of pears were even more numerous than of 
apples. Gerard says he knew someone who grew “ at the point 
of three score sundrie sorts of Peares, and those exceeding good ; 
not doubting but if his minde had beene to seeke after multi¬ 
tudes he might have gotten togither the like number of those 
worse kindes ... to describe each pear apart, were to send an 
owle to Athens, or to number those things that are without 
number." The eight varieties he figures are the following : 
"the Jenetting,Saint James, Royall,Burgomot, Quince,Bishop, 
Katherine, and the Winter Peare." The Katherine pear was a 
popular variety, " known to all," as these lines in “ A Ballad 
upon a Wedding," by Sir John Suckling (1609-41) testify : 
“ Her cheek so rare a white was on, 
No daisy makes comparison ; 
Who sees them is undone ; 
For streaks of red were mingled there, 
Such as are on a Catherine pear, 
The side that’s next the sun.” 
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The various kinds of " Bon Cretien " were among the best 
grown. One sort Parkinson mentions as the ten-pound pear, 
or “ Bon Cretien " of Syon, " so called because the grafts cost 
the master so much the fetching by the messenger's expenses, 
when he brought nothing else." The same pears did not suit 
all counties alike ; some kinds were more grown in one part 
than another—as, for instance, the Arundell and the Robert, 
which were specially plentiful in Norfolk and Suffolk. Wardens 
were still reckoned among the best cooking pears. Parkinson 
notes “ the pear of Jerusalem being baked it is as red as the 
best Warden, whereof Master William Ward, of Essex, assured 
me, who is the chief keeper of the King’s granary at Whitehall." 
A glance down Parkinson's list, containing some sixty-five 
sorts, some of which are quoted already, shows several names 
still familiar in the nineteenth century, such as Bon Chretien, 
Bergamot, Windsor, and “ Pear Gergonell." Several varieties 
of pears are noted by Lyte in the copy of Dodoen’s Herbal , 
now in the British Museum, annotated by him, and marked 
with the alterations he intended to make in his translation. 
A list of names of pears in his handwriting is also preserved 
by his descendants, which shows how much attention he gave 
