NOVEMBER. 
241 
VICAR OF WINKFIELD PEAR. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
Judging from the number of instances in which I have specimens of this 
Pear sent me to be named, it is one that though very generally distributed is 
very little known. Though not a Pear of first-rate excellence as a dessert 
fruit, still it is one which on account of its handsome appearance deserves to 
be cultivated in every collection of any extent where the soil is deep, loamy, 
and warm. According as the soil is more or less so, will the fruit possess more 
or less merit; while it is sometimes a melting Pear of excellent quality, at 
others it is only fit for stewing. 
The fruit has a powerful musky scent when ripe, and is of the largest size. 
It is long, pyriform, and often one-sided; but the most distinguishing charac¬ 
teristic is, that the eye is not in a line with the axis as in other Pears, but is 
frequently placed on one side, and generally on the side opposite to that on 
which the stalk is inserted; by this peculiarity alone this Pear may be identi¬ 
fied. The skin is smooth, green at first but changing as it ripens to yellow, with 
a faint brownish tinge next the sun, and strewed with numerous grey, russet, 
and green dots. Eye small and open with long, spreading, leaf-like segments, 
placed either on a level with the surface, or set in a very shallow basin. Stalk 
from 1 to 1 % inch long, slender, and obliquely attached without depression, 
and frequently with a fleshy swelling at its base. Flesh white, juicy, melting, 
and sweet when grown in a warm situation, but only half-melting and coarse¬ 
grained under ordinary circumstances. When it does not ripen it is a very 
excellent stewing Pear. It is in use from November till January. 
This Pear derived the name by which it is known in England from having 
been introduced from France by the Rev. W. L. Rham, of Winkfield, Berkshire. 
Its previous history we extract from the Transactions of the Horticultural 
Society of Berry 
Towards 1760, M. Leroy, cure of Villiers, in Brenne, a parish situated 
eight kilometres from Clion, in the department of Indre, met with, in the wood 
of Fromenteau, a quarter of a league from the chateau of that name, a wild 
Pear, the fruit of which appeared to him sufficiently remarkable to induce him 
to propagate it. He grafted it in a vineyard adjoining his garden, and it is 
from that have come the innumerable trees that are now to be found in the 
neighbourhood. I have often seen, in my youth, not the old tree found 
in the wood of Fromenteau, but its first descendant, the original planted in the 
garden of the cure of Villiers, the same that had been grafted by the hands of 
the good cure. This old tree exists still, and it is shown with a sort of respect. 
Its trunk measures 4 feet 7 inches, and 7 feet 7 inches high. It still produces 
fruit that is smaller and more harsh than those that are actually grafted. 
This new variety of Pear was rapidly spread in the parish of Villiers and 
in those adjoining, and the merit of its fruit was not slow to be appreciated, 
since before our first revolution, the Minister Amelot de Chaillon, who had pro¬ 
perty in the parish of Villiers, did not fail to have it every year on his table. 
In 1822, struck with the beauty of this Pear (one having been sent me 
which measured nearly 10£ inches long), and not finding it mentioned in any 
catalogue, nor described in any work, I had sent several specimens of it to 
Messrs. Andre, Thouin, and Vilmorin, who examined it along with some 
other persons, among whom was M. Bose. One of these gentlemen, M. Poiteau, 
I believe, took it at first for a variety of St. Lezin, if it were not even the 
St. Lezin itself; but it was known positively that it was new and that it could 
not be confounded with any varieties formerly cultivated. Since then it has 
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