44 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 22 . 
have no pretensions to the distinction, and more than one 
old person with whom it was once a favourite fruit now 
declare that it is no longer obtainable. Be this as it may, 
even if the tree in question has not already departed, yet 
even those who maintain that it is still to be found lingering 
in our fruit gardens, acknowledge that it is in the last stage 
of decrepitude and decay: it is following the universal law 
of nature; no organized creature shall endure through all 
time. Grafting may postpone the arrival of death, as the 
transfusion of blood will revive for a while the sinking 
animal, but the postponement cannot be for a time inde¬ 
finite : the day must come, in both the animal and the scion, 
when its vessels shall be without the energy to propel or 
assimilate the vital fluid, though afforded to it from the 
most youthful and most vigorous source. 
The Golden Pippin is said to be a native of Sussex, and 
to have been first reared at Barham Park, situated on the 
north side of tbe South Downs. The Dutch acknowledged 
it to be an English apple in their catalogue of fruits, where 
it is called the “Engelsclie goud Pepping.” The French 
call it “ Pippin d’Or,’’ which is a translation of the English 
name. Worlidge notices the Golden Pippin, and says, “it 
is smaller than the Orange-apple, else much like it in 
colour, taste, and long-keeping.” Evelyn observes in his 
Diary, 22nd October, 1685, that “ at Lord Clarendon’s seat 
at Swallowfield, Berks, there is an orchard of 1000 Golden 
and other cider Pippins.” Catherine, Empress of Russia, 
was so fond of this apple that she was regularly supplied 
•with it from England ; and, in order that she might have it 
in the greatest perfection, each apple was separately en¬ 
veloped in silver paper before it was packed. ( Phillips' 
History of Fruits, 34.) 
We have already noticed the early existence of apple 
orchards in the south-west of England, and we must not 
close this section without some further remarks upon that 
great cider district. Evelyn says that Herefordshire alone, 
in his time, was known to produce annually 50,000 hogs¬ 
heads of cider, and, proceeding to remark on some of the 
apples employed in its manufacture, states that the Red- 
streak was a pure wilding, and within the memory of some 
then (1070) living was named the Scudamore’s Crab, and 
not much known save in the neighbourhood. It is to the 
perseverance of Lord Scudamore, thus commemorated, that 
the orchards in that district are indebted for some of their 
best varieties. He was our ambassador to the court of 
France duriug the reign of Charles I., and he lost no oppor¬ 
tunity of collecting scions of the best apples he heal’d of on 
the continent, and transmitting them to his west-country 
estates. 
These western county sources of cider found an able 
advocate in Dr. John Beale, who published, in 1657, a little 
volume, entitled Herefordshire Orchards a pattern for all 
England, but only bearing on its title page his initials. He 
was a native of Herefordshire, which county he greatly 
benefited, as Gough in his Topography records. His family, 
which had long flourished in Herefordshire, seemed to 
inherit a zeal for the plantation of orchards, and the indi¬ 
vidual of whom we are now sketching the biography, was 
fully gifted with the family hereditament. He so raised 
and extended the reputation of the orchards of his county, 
and their produce, that in a few years it gained some 
hundred thousands of pounds by the increased reputation.* 
His enthusiastic love of the agricolan arts is manifested in 
every one of his writings. He was a man of talent, and the j 
companion of the men of genius contemporary with him. j 
Many of his letters are preserved in Boyle’s works. That 
philosopher thus speaks of him, “ There is not in life, a 
man in this whole island, nor on the continents beyond the 1 
seas, that could be made more universally useful to do good 
to all,” He was in the church, was a member of Corpus 
Christi College, Oxford, and had the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity conferred upon him in 1683 by that University. 
It is stated that the same year was that of his death, and 
that he was then of the full age of eighty. Speaking of 
himself, he says, “ My education was amongst scholars in 
academies, where I spent many years in conversing with 
books only. A little before our wars began I spent two sum¬ 
mers in travelling towards the south, with purpose to learn to 
know men and foreign manners. Since my return I have 
been constantly employed in a weighty office, by which I am 
not disengaged from the care of our public welfare.” What 
“ weighty office ” he filled, we know not; but it is certain that 
he devoted himself to other sciences besides those con¬ 
nected with the culture of the soil, for a letter has been 
published written to him by Mr. Evelyn, relative to his 1 
(Dr. B.'s) discoveries in optical glasses. 
* Gough’s Antiquities, p. 193. 
We have more than once expressed our opinion against 
the destruction of the Crystal Palace, and now let one 
of the labouring class be heard:— 
“ Can it be possible that the Crystal Palace is 
doomed to destruction ? In whose rude veins does this 
i modern Vandalism, this fearful spirit of devastation, 
I manifest itself at the present day ? Surely the mixture 
| of primitive Danish blood, after coursing through the 
veins of England’s sous so many centuries, should be 
j refined down ere this. Taking us as a nation, I am 
| certain the response would be, ‘ Allow the building to 
remain!’ It is a monument of native intellect. It 
I has proved itself a blessing; and gained the name for 
! order, taste, and respectability, which was not supposed 
before to belong to the humbler classes of Britain. It 
is an ornament to our metropolis; and would prove 
itself a great good for tbe purpose to which it would be 
applied, and heartily-to-be-desired, namely, a winter 
garden: which, with a lasting happy idea of the Exhi¬ 
bition itself, it would remain as a bulwark around the 
memories of tbe people. 
“ Are not conservatories, &c., considered necessary 
appendages to mansions, for the comfort and enjoyment 
of the great and noble of our land? When we consider 
this, does it not appear desirable that the million of souls, 
at least, pent up in smoke-begrimed London, at a time, 
too, when the rich and wealthy are enjoying the plea¬ 
sures of home and refinement in the country, should 
have an opportunity to feast sometimes upon the beauty 
of Nature’s divine workmanship ? 
“ Myself, one of England's humblest sons, with 
nothing but my birthright to be proud of, I nevertheless 
claim a right to express my feelings on this matter. I 
was once a resident in London myself. I well know 
what it is to pass a dreary winter there. 
“ When a boy, scarce twelve years of age, I was 
caught up wild from the country, and placed at the 
watch and working jewellery business, not more than 
three or four hundred yards from the site of the Crystal 
Palace. I can well fancy what my enjoyment would 
then have been, if, after close attention to work from 
seven in the morning till nine at night, retiring to rest 
with aching head and hot eyes, six days out of the 
seven, 1 could have refreshed my mind and body, inde¬ 
pendent of unfavourable weather, at all seasons of the 
year, in a garden such as the Crystal Palace may be 
made to become. 
“ Who can depict so well as those who have ex¬ 
perienced them, the feelings of a working mechanic, 
toiling all his life in the unhealthy pent-up atmosphere 
