252 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
Saxon gardener under its present name, but with a closer 
approach to the Latin, being called Rsedic, or Radiolle. 1 
A curious testimony to the former high reputation of the 
Radish survives in the “ Annual Radish Feast at Levens Flail, 
a custom dating from time immemorial, and supposed by some 
to be a relic of feudal times, held on May 12 th at Levens Hall, 
the seat of the Hon. Mrs. Howard, and adjoining the high 
road about midway between Kendal and Milnthorpe. Tradi¬ 
tion hath it that the Radish feast arose out of a rivalry between 
the families of Levens Hall and Dallam Tower, as to which 
should entertain the Corporation with their friends and 
followers, and in which Levens Hall eventually carried the 
palm. The feast is provided on the bowling green in front of 
the Hall, where several long tables are plentifully spread with 
Radishes and brown bread and butter, the tables being 
repeatedly furnished with guests ” (“ Gardener’s Chronicle ”). 
IRaisiits. 
Four pounds of Prunes, and as many of Raisins o’ the sun. 
Winter s Tale , iv. 3, 51. 
Raisins are alluded to, if not actually named, in “ 1st 
Henry IV,” ii. 4, when Falstaff says : “ If reasons were as 
plentiful as Blackberries, I would give no man a reason 
upon compulsion, I-” “ It seems that a pun underlies 
this, the association of reasons with Blackberries springing 
out of the fact that reasons sounded like raisins —Earle, 
Philology , &c. 
Bearing in mind that Raisin is a corruption of racemus , a 
bunch of Grapes, we can understand that the word was not 
always applied, as it is now, to the dried fruit, but was some¬ 
times applied to the bunch of grapes as it hung ripe on the 
tree—• 
1 “ Catholicon Anglicum.” 
