THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, FEBRUARY 7, I860. 
made an intoxicating liquor from the Sorbus, or Service Tree; 
and though hardly from the indigenous Crab Apple ; yet some, 
perhaps, from the better kind of Apples introduced by the 
Romans. The Anglo-Saxons distinguished their “Eppelwin” 
from wine and mead. 
The Normans, probably, obtained their cider Applcrtrees from 
Biscay ; the climate and soil there both favoured their growth. 
To the abbeys of that country we must look for the improvement 
of Apples and cider-making. 
Near Yalognes, in the department of La Manche, stood the 
famous abbey of Montebourg. The possessions of this abbey 
extended to Dorset and Devon. Besides lands in Axmouth 
parish in South-east Devon, the manor and church given in the 
reign of Henry TX., there were also other lands, and a priory in 
Loders, near Bridport, Dorsetshire. 
Cider was mado on the Montebourg lands before the year 
1286. The monks, who possessed nearly all the knowledge that 
prevailed at that era, had introduced upon their estates on this 
side the channel Apple trees, for the growth of Apples for cider¬ 
making. They had also taught their tenants how to make cider, 
according to the approved plan of Normandy, which is still pre¬ 
served in that part of France, in the Norman islands of Guernsey 
and Jersey, and in Herefordshire. _ / 
W. Yillata, of Loders and Bothenhampton, near Bridport, 
held land of the Abbot of Montebourg, upon payment of 6s. 
a-year, and upon his finding a horse {ad molendum poma , &c.), 
to'grind the Apples in what is now called a horse-mill.* 
The skilful monks may have done much towards the improve¬ 
ment of their estates by the introduction of better fruit trees. 
Probably others were not disposed to adopt novelties any more 
than their descendants in the present day. 
The Quarantine Apple is supposed to be a corruption of 
Carentan Apple. Many other names are old names corrupted in 
the course of years. A perriwinkle shell-fish is termed a gobbet. 
It is the Norman gobet, a mouthful, as the famous Cherries of the 
valley of Montmorency are now called les bons gobets. 
That cider was made, as before related, in the twelfth century, 
cannot be denied; but not to any great extent, if we institute a 
comparison with the great doings now-a-days of cider-making 
Devon and Somerset. 
The Vicar of Dawlish, in the South Hams (now a watering 
place), received, in 1280, one half the crop of Apples, doubtless 
grown for making cider.f 
The word Orchard, or, as it is now pronounced, Orcliat, perhaps 
a name given by the monks from Orchatos , has been a fruitful 
source of error. It was not in any sense the orchard of modern 
times. The latter is a space planted with Apple trees of greater 
or less extent, unlike the practice of Normandy and Brittany, 
where pasture and arable land are crossed by rows of Apple trees, 
and where the English practice of planting the trees in one spot 
with grass under them does not obtain. 
The orchard of early reigns was a place laid out with trees, as a 
pleasure garden for walking, recreation, and sports, having 
arbours and similar appropriate places. Such a spot, if Apple 
trees prevailed, was called an Apple garden, or Apple orchard. 
An Apple garden is spoken of in “ Domesday Book ” as ex¬ 
isting at Nottingham. Horti and Hortuli are frequent in the 
same record. 
The monks of Lewes Priory, Sussex, had in their enclosure of 
thirty-two acres and a half within walls, a paradise (park), a garden, 
and an Apple orchard, which felt the effects of a gale, A.D. 1267. 
Some Apples were valued in an orchard in Norfolk, a.d. 1289, 
6.9. 8 d. ; the mill, at 9s. The Apple, like the Vine, has been 
tried in climates and soils quite unsuited to it. 
There were ardent lovers of horticulture among the clergy. 
Upon the extension of a part of Wells Cathedral about the 
year 1326, there was a special provision made for the careful 
preservation of a certain Medlar tree. Quinces sold, in 1292, at 
4.9. the hundred. 
Wycliffe knew of the strength of cider, for he translated the 
passage, Luke i. 15, “ He slial be gret bifore the Lord, and he 
schal not drynke wyne ne sider.” 
One Cottingham, of Seaford, gave a bond, 26th Elizabeth, that 
while he should continue a tippler, he and his household should 
be orderly, and keep no unlawful .games nor evil rule within his 
house, garden, or orchards, during the said time of his tippling, 
* The late M. de Gcrville, the learned antiquary of Valognes, possessed 
the cartulary of Montebourg. He communicated this information to the 
Author in 1841. His death took place in 1853. 
+ See a Manorial Visitation in the possession of the Rev. George Oliver, 
D.D. 
i. e., dealing in liquor. In the orchard, was doubtless the skittle- 
alley for summer days. 
Butler, in his “ Hudibras,” gives among other acquirements of 
Sidrophel that he knew,— 
“ And in what sign best sider’s made.” 
So that in the reign of Charles II., not only was attention paid 
to the growth of the Apple, but to the making of this fruit into 
cider—an operation of importance enough to be referred to an 
astrologer, then a common practice. 
Apple trees and Pear trees also began to be much cultivated 
about the middle of the 17th century. In a pamphlet addressed 
to the well-known Samuel Hartlib, Esq., a.d. 1657, entitled 
“ Herefordshire Orchards, a Pattern for all England,” it is asserted 
that gennet-moyles bear every other year, and make the best 
cider. Mordicant, or sharp cider, pleased the peasant or working 
man, as was the case in France. 
In Herefordshire few cottagers, and even few of the wealthiest 
yeomen, taste any other drink in the family but cider, except at 
some special festivals twice or thrice in a year, and that for 
variety rather than for choice. 
The credit of cider had of late years much advanced in the 
estimation of the best gentry, who had sought out the right 
method of ripening and hoarding the choicest fruits, and some 
also of bottling it. 
“But I am confident,” the writer adds, “that much more 
may be added to the perfection of it, when they shall also apply 
to it the due subtleties of the mysterious art of fermentation.’'* 
Each cultivator bestowed greater attention, having proved 
that—- 
“Else false hopes 
He cherishes, nor will his fruit expect 
Th’ autumnal season but in summer’s pride, 
When other orchats smile abortive fail.” 
Philips, Cider, book i. 
Wassailing the orchards on New Year’s Eve is called, in 
Sussex and those parts, “ Apple Howling,” from the words 
used:— 
“ Stand fast, root; bear well, top ; 
Pray the God send us a good howling crop, &c.” 
Hence the entries in former centuries of money given to the 
“ howling boys ” may be understood. 
Hooker, in his MS. survey, records that the Apple was cul¬ 
tivated in Devonshire so early as 1520. He must mean begun 
to be grown for the purposes of cider. He continues, “ but in 
the beginning of the following century it received more attention.” 
So long as the narrow lanes served to keep up the communica¬ 
tion between the principal towns, and pack-horses did all the 
work, there being no carts, how could cider in hogsheads have 
been sent about the country ? It could not have been sent to 
any great distance. 
The absence of the mention of cider up to a certain period in 
borough archives is very remarkable. In accompts, where every 
halfpenny is carefully set down ; in dinners of the most homely 
kind, and feasts, such as the Cobb Ale at Lyme, and the feast at 
Ford House; in a dinner to Charles I., altogether (for the 
country) very sumptuous up to this period referred to, and which 
required to be specified, there is no mention of cider ; then cider 
takes its place with ale and beer, and furnishes an item in every 
accompt for refreshment or festive enjoyment at table of the in¬ 
habitants of boroughs. 
In the detailed presentments of the Hustings’ Book for Lyme 
for the year 1597, of the stealers of wood and pollers of trees for 
fuel, appears this entry : — 
Item, they present George Browne's son, Hoode’s son, and Thomas 
Sampford’s boy to break into men’s orchards and steal Apples. 
Whether these were Apples for the table or for cider matters 
little, after what has been written above, as no cider is mentioned 
in the archives for 110 years. 
In 1629, Apples were cultivated in Massachusetts from seed 
imported from England by order of the governor and company of 
the colony. Governor’s Island, in Boston harbour, was givemto 
Governor Wintlirop, in 1632, on condition that he should plant 
an orchard upon it. 
A hogshead of Somersetshire cider was brought to Mr. 
Richards, near Dorchester, a.d. 1699, upon the occasion of Eng¬ 
land and Scotland being united into one kingdom ; a hogshead 
* The late eccentric A. Cross, Esq., of Broomfield, near Taunton, famous 
for his experiments in electricity and galvanism, believed he should be 
able to master fermentation in cider. He did not succeed. 
