THE PEAR IN ENGLAND
Much as America owes England for fruit, farm, and garden crops, she is but little indebted to her for pears. Varieties of pears have come to the New World almost wholly from Belgium and France, not more than three or four major sorts of English origin being among those now commonly grown in America. But even though the line of march in the development of varieties scarcely touches England, all English speaking pear-growers have received instruction as to culture and have had knowledge of continental varieties transmitted to them through English publications. In the history of fruits in England, therefore, many gleams of light illuminate the path along which the pear has been brought from the ancients to America.
No doubt the pear was brought to Britain before the Roman conquest. Tacitus, in the first century, says the climate of Britain is suitable to the culture of all fruits and vegetables except the grape and the olive. Pliny writes that the Britains had the cherry before the middle of the first century, and almost certainly the pear and other fruits were introduced with it. There was, also, a Saxon name for the pear, pirige, so philologists say, before the fall of the Roman Empire. The years 43 and 407 mark the beginning and the end of the Romans and of civilization in Britain for many centuries, and whether or not the pear was permanently established during this time there are now no means of ascertaining. The climate and soil of England are congenial to the pear, however, and no doubt wild or little cultivated trees persisted until the Norman conquest, the spread of Christianity, and the building of many monasteries with orchards and gardens as essential adjuncts.
Even in England under the Normans who came in 1066, not much progress was made in fruit-growing. Tillers of the soil were hard pressed for the necessities of life and could only with difficulty harvest a bare sustenance from the land. Besides, monks and nobles preyed on the starving peasants so that at no time could the farmer be sure of reaping what he planted. Only these monks and nobles enjoyed luxuries. But even men who boasted of titles and owned large holdings of land had little room within fortified walls and on moated islands, which constant wars made necessary, for fruits; nor had they time from projects of war and the pleasures of the chase to devote to the art of agriculture. Fortunately, priors and abbots were well disposed toward the good things of life, therefore made much of fruits and vegetables, and with abundance of leisure the monks became the only proficients of the times in gardening and orcharding. Moreover, they were in constant correspondence with the continent and could ascertain what culture was needed to grow perfect fruits. Pear culture had its beginnings in England, then, in the monasteries established under the Normans.
Pressed for an exact date as to when the pear began to be cultivated in England, the historians would be troubled to name one. There is a plan of the monastery of Canterbury made in 1165 which shows an orchard and a vineyard. History, moreover, relates that armed men collected in an orchard to take hand in the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170. Men in those days set small store by written accounts, and history must be helped out by imagination, and we may imagine that there were pears in this orchard.
Pears by this time had become common, for there are records of varieties to a considerable number and in large quantities which could have been had only from rather extensive orchards. Mrs. Evelyn Cecil[5] publishes documents from the Record office of England which contain items of pears bought for Henry III and Edward I at different times in the thirteenth century, the first date being “probably for the year 1223.” The pears appear to be of French origin, and the varieties are Caloels, Pesse Pesceles, Ruler, and Martyns. In a later memorandum, 1292-93, still other varieties are named as the Regul, Calwel, Dieyer, Sorell, Chryfall, and Gold Knoper. The pears were sold by the hundred and were used for desert, though “pears in syrup” and pears for cider are mentioned. The perusal of these documents, printed in considerable detail in Mrs. Cecil’s admirable book, enables us to fix the beginning of commercial pear culture in England at as early a date as 1200.
Passing by several other references from records and financial accounts of monasteries in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as too vague to be of importance, although they make certain that the pear was rather widely cultivated in England in these two centuries, we come at last to a noteworthy landmark in pear history in England, the introduction of the Warden pear, which may be put at the conveniently vague date of the end of the fourteenth century, 1388 being the first year they are mentioned.
“Warden” was a name used for centuries to designate a group of pear varieties having crisp, firm flesh and which were used for culinary purposes. Their history runs back to the Cistercian Abbey of Warden in Bedfordshire and to a date earlier than 1388. Warden pears were favorites for centuries for pies and pastries which every early cook-book contained recipes for making. In the early English literature they are considered a distinct fruit as “apples, pears, quinces, wardens,” and even the herbals and early fruit books count them as distinct. Shakespeare’s clown in A Winter’s Tale says: “I must have saffron to colour the Warden pies.” The name came to signify any long-keeping, cooking pear and even yet is so used in parts of England.
The most noteworthy landmark is found in the discussions of pears by the English herbalists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Turner, the first of these herbalists, in his Herbal of 1551, mentions the pear but without important details, though we may infer from what he says that the pear is now a common fruit. Thomas Tusser, in his Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie, published in 1573, gives a list of fruits to be set or removed in January in which he includes “pears of all sorts,” and then as a separate item includes “Warden, white and red,” showing that “Wardens” were held as distinct from the pear and that they were prominent in the orchards of the time. The century ends with John Gerarde’s Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, 1597, in which we are brought to the realization that the pear is no longer a probationary fruit or even to be considered a novelty or luxury but a standard food product. Gerarde might well be quoted in full, but since Parkinson, a few years later, contains a “fuller discourse,” as one of Gerarde’s editors says, we take but a few sentences from Gerarde.
Varieties by this time had become numerous. Gerarde, while he names but eight, says he knew someone who grew “at the point of three score sundrie sorts of Peares, and those exceeding good; not doubting but that if his minde had beene to seeke after multitudes he might have gotten together the like number of those worse kindes ... to describe each pear apart, were to send an owle to Athens, or to number those things without number.” Eight sorts are considered worth figuring, those accorded the honor being: “the Jenneting, Saint James, Royall, Beugomot, Quince, Bishop, Katherine, and the Winter Peare.” Of these the Katherine is given further prominence by being listed as “known to all.” If one is to judge from number of varieties, the pear at this time is a more general favorite than the apple, a considerably greater number of sorts being indicated.
Parkinson’s account in his Paradisus of 1629, indeed does prove to be a “fuller discourse” for he names and describes 65 sorts; but these are not all for he says: “The variety of peares is as much or more then of apples, and I thinke it is as hard in this, as before in apples, for any to be so exquisite, as that hee could number up all the sorts that are to be had: for wee have in our country so manie, as I shall give you the names of by and by, and are hitherto come to our knowledge: but I verily beleeve that there be many, both in our country, and in others, that we have not yet knowne or heard of; for every yeare almost wee attaine to the knowledge of some, we knew not of before. Take therefore, according to the manner before held, the description of one, with the severall names of the rest, untill a more exact discourse be had of them, every one apart.” Some of the names in Parkinson’s list are group names covering several varieties. Thus, he says, “the Winter Bon Chretien is of many sorts;” and again, “the Winter Bergomot is of two or three sorts;” and, “the Winter peare is of many sorts.”
Parkinson’s descriptions are brief but written with rare clearness, and the old herbalist seems to have possessed a nicety of observation that commends him to all who have eyes for the distinguishing characters of fruits. With Parkinson our history of the pear in England must come to a close, since later accounts are available to all, and therefore as an important inventory, and because every word is pertinent, his account of varieties is republished.
“The Summer bon Chretien is somewhat a long peare, with a greene and yellow russetish coate, and will have sometimes red sides; it is ripe at Michaelmas: Some use to dry them as they doe Prunes, and keepe them all the yeare after. I have not seene or heard any more Summer kindes hereof then this one, and needeth no wall to nourse it as the other.
“The Winter bon Chretien is of many sorts, some greater, others lesser, and all good; but the greatest and best is that kinde that groweth at Syon: All the kinds of this Winter fruit must be planted against a wall, or else they will both seldome beare, and bring fewer also to ripenesse, comparable to the wall fruit: The kindes also are according to their lasting; for some will endure good much longer than others.
“The Summer Bergomot is an excellent well rellished peare, flattish, & short, not long like others, of a meane bignesse, and of a darke yellowish greene colour on the outside.
“The Winter Bergomot is of two or three sorts, being all of them small fruit, somewhat greener on the outside then the Summer kindes; all of them very delicate and good in their due time: For some will not be fit to bee eaten when others are well-nigh spent, every of them outlasting another by a moneth or more.
“The Diego peare is but a small peare, but an excellent well rellished fruit, tasting as if Muske had been put among it; many of them growe together, as it were in clusters.
“The Duetete or double headed peare, so called of the forme, is a very good peare, not very great, of a russettish browne colour on the outside.
“The Primating peare is a good moist peare, and early ripe.
“The Geneting peare is a very good early ripe peare.
“The greene Chesill is a delicate mellow peare, even melting as it were in the mouth of the eater, although greenish on the outside.
“The Catherine peare is knowne to all I thinke to be a yellow red sided peare, of a full waterish sweete taste, and ripe with the foremost.
“The King Catherine is greater than the other, and of the same goodnesse, or rather better.
“The Russet Catherine is a very good middle sized peare.
“The Windsor peare is an excellent good peare, well knowne to most persons, and of a reasonable greatnesse: it will beare fruit some times twice in a yeare (and as it is said) three times in some places.
“The Norwich peare is of two sorts, Summer and Winter, both of them good fruit, each in their season.
“The Worster peare is blackish, a farre better peare to bake (when as it will be like a Warden, and as good) than to eate rawe; yet so it is not to be misliked.
“The Muske peare is like unto a Catherine peare for bignesse, colour, and forme; but farre more excellent in taste, as the very name importeth.
“The Rosewater peare is a goodly faire peare, and of a delicate taste.
“The Sugar peare is an early peare, very sweete, but waterish.
| "The Summer Popperin | } | both of them are very good dry firme peares, somewhat spotted, and brownish on the outside. |
| "The Winter Popperin |
“The greene Popperin is a winter fruit, of equall goodnesse with the former.
“The Soveraigne peare, that which I have seene and tasted, and so termed unto me, was a small brownish yellow peare, but of a most dainty taste; but some doe take a kind of Bon Chretien, called the Elizabeth peare, to be the Soveraigne peare; how truely let others judge.
“The Kings peare is a very good and well tasted peare.
“The peare Royall is a great peare, and of a good rellish.
“The Warwicke peare is a reasonable faire and good peare.
“The Greenfield peare is a very good peare, of a middle size.
“The Lewes peare is a brownish greene peare, ripe about the end of September, a resonable well rellished fruit, and very moist.
“The Bishop peare is a middle sized peare, of a reasonable good taste, not very waterish; but this property is oftentimes seene in it, that before the fruit is gathered, (but more usually those that fall of themselves, and the rest within a while after they are gathered) will be rotten at the core, when there will not be a spot or blemish to bee seene on the outside, or in all the peare, untill you come neare the core.
“The Wilford peare is a good and a faire peare.
“The Bell peare a very good greene peare.
“The Portingall peare is a great peare, but more goodly in shew than good indeed.
“The Gratiola peare is a kinde of Bon Chretien, called the Cowcumber peare, or Spinola’s peare.
“The Rowling peare is a good peare, but hard, and not good before it bee a little rowled or bruised, to make it eate the more mellow.
“The Pimpe peare is as great as the Windsor peare, but rounder, and of a very good rellish.
“The Turnep peare is a hard winter peare, not so good to eate rawe, as it is to bake.
“The Arundell peare is most plentifull in Suffolke, and there commended to be a verie good peare.
“The Berry peare is a Summer peare, reasonable faire and great, and of so good and wholesome a taste, that few or none take harme by eating never so many of them.
“The Sand peare is a reasonable good peare, but small.
“The Morley peare is a very good peare, like in forme and colour unto the Windsor, but somewhat grayer.
“The peare pricke is very like unto the Greenfield peare, being both faire, great, and good.
“The good Rewell is a reasonable great peare, as good to bake as to eate rawe, and both wayes it is a good fruit.
“The Hawkes Bill peare is of a middle size, somewhat like unto the Rowling peare.
“The Petworth peare is a winter peare, and is great, somewhat long, faire, and good.
“The Slipper peare is a reasonable good peare.
“The Robert peare is a very good peare, plentiful in Suffolke and Norfolke.
“The Pound peare is a reasonable good peare, both to eate rawe, and to bake.
“The Ten Pound peare, or the hundred pound peare, the truest and best, is the best Bon Chretien of Syon, so called, because the grafts cost the Master so much the fetching by the messengers expences, when he brought nothing else.
“The Gilloflower peare is a winter peare, faire in shew, but hard, and not fit to bee eaten rawe, but very good to bake.
“The peare Couteau is neither good one way nor other.
“The Binsce peare is a reasonable good winter peare, of a russetish colour, and a small fruit: but will abide good a long while.
“The Pucell is a greene peare, of an indifferent good taste.
“The blacke Sorrell is a reasonable great long peare, of a darke red colour on the outside.
“The red Sorrell is of a redder colour, else like the other.
“The Surrine is no very good peare.
“The Summer Hasting is a little greene peare, of an indifferent good rellish.
“Peare Gergonell is an early peare, somewhat long, and of a very pleasant taste.
“The white Genneting is a reasonable good peare, yet not equall to the other.
“The Sweater is somewhat like the Windsor for colour and bignesse, but nothing neare of so good a taste.
“The bloud red peare is of a darke red colour on the outside, but piercing very little into the inner pulpe.
“The Hony peare is a long greene Summer peare.
“The Winter peare is of many sorts, but this is onely so called, to bee distinguished from all other Winter peares, which have severall names given them, and is a very good peare.
“The Warden or Luke Wards peare of two sorts, both white and red, both great and small.
“The Spanish Warden is greater than either of both the former, and better also.
“The peare of Jerusalem, or the stript peare, whose barke while it is young, is as plainly seene to be stript with greene, red, and yellow, as the fruit it selfe is also, and is of a very good taste: being baked also, it is as red as the best Warden, whereof Master William Ward of Essex hath assured mee, who is the chiefe keeper of the Kings Granary at Whitehall.
“Hereof likewise there is a wilde kinde no bigger than ones thumbe, and striped in the like manner, but much more.
“The Choke peares, and other wilde peares, both great and small, as they are not to furnish our Orchard, but the Woods, Forrests, Fields, and Hedges, so wee leave them to their naturall places, and to them that keep them, and make good use of them.”
Three hundred years have played havoc with the pears Parkinson knew. None are known in America, and unless the Pound of Parkinson is the Pound of today, not a half dozen are found in current lists in England. Parkinson’s Catherine, Winter Bon Chretien, Windsor, Bergamot, possibly the Pound, and his Gergonell, the Jargonelle of today, are about all the names that would be recognized by modern pear-growers. The pear shows far fewer familiar names at the end of three centuries than Parkinson lists of apples, plums, cherries, or even the peach in Europe. Dropping old varieties can only be interpreted as improvement in the pear. The pear, it seems certain, has been more profoundly changed for the better through the touch of man’s hand than the other fruits named since Parkinson wrote. For this, pomology has the Belgians to thank.
Pear culture seems to have reached its height, if it be judged by its literature and by the number of varieties cultivated, early in the nineteenth century. The Belgians’ passion for pears was no doubt the chief stimulus, for the Belgian breeders spread their offerings with generous hand throughout England. In 1826, the catalog of the Horticultural Society of London listed 622 pears. Pomology in England was then, and is now as compared with America, an art of the leisure classes. This has been an advantage and a disadvantage to the pear in England. The advantage is that when fruit is grown for pleasure many varieties are grown to add novelty to luxury so that the fruit is thereby more rapidly improved and its culture brought to greater perfection. The disadvantage is that those who grow fruit for market find a poorer market for their wares since those who should be their best customers supply their own wants. For the reason, therefore, that the English take delight in growing their own fruit, pear-growing is not the great commercial enterprise that it is in America.
Pear-growing in England differs from that of America in another respect. The pear-tree in England is built as much as planted. In many plantations each tree has a precise architectural form. The plants are trained into fans, cordons, espaliers and u-forms on walls; or as pyramids, globes, or vases in the open; sometimes in fantastic shapes to suit the fancy of the grower; and now and then as a hedge or border. The undisciplined standards of America are hardly known, though what the English call a standard seems to be increasing. This difference in training is due in part to the necessity of meeting different climatic conditions, and in part to greater devotion on the Englishman’s part to the art of gardening—the use of the shears, the knife, and the billhook give the gardener greater scope. The pear-tree in England is often decorative as well as useful.