Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/401

IN EARLY TIMES, 301 Clieysills. ]f tlieir prices arc to be taken as any indication of the esteem in m liicli the several varieties were held, or of their rarity, the St. Regie and Pesse-pucelle apjjear to have occupied the first places; the cost of those fruits ranging from 10^. to 2,^. and 36'. a hundred; Martins sold at br/., the Caillou at 1*. and the other sorts at 2<'/. or Sd. per hundred. To the ])receding list of pears cultivated in England in early times must be added another sort which may be reason- ably claimed as of ])urely native origin. The horticultural skill of the Cistercian monks of Wardon, in Bedfordshire, a foundation dating from the twelfth century, produced, at some early but uncertain time, a baking variety of the pear. It bore, and still bears, the name of their abbey, figured on its armorial escutclieon "', and sup})lied the contents of those AYar- don-pies so often named in old descriptions of feasts, and Avhich so many of our historical novelists" have represented as Inige pasties of venison, or other meat, suited to the digestive capacities of gigantic wardens of feudal days. It is time, in justice to these venerable gardeners, that this error should be exploded. Their a])plication to horticultural pursuits, even up to the Dissolution, is honourably attested by a survey of their monastery made after that event -. it mentions the " great vineyard," the " little vineyard," tw^o orchards, doubtless the same in which the " Wardon" was first reared, and a hop- yard. The AVardon pear is still known in the west and other parts of England. Lawson, whose " New Orchard and Gar- den" was published in 1597, remarks that "hard winter fruit and Wardens" are not fit to gather until some time after Michaelmas ; another author, of about the same date, says " Wardons are to be gathered, carried, packt, and laid as win- ter peares are°." With the Wardon I com})lete the best list of the ncnncd varieties of the })ear known in this country during medieval times, which my researches have, hitherto, enabled me to "' Tlie arms of Wardon abbey vere, ac- " Mr. Loudon observes tbat the Wardon cording to Bishop Tanner, Ar. three War- pear was so called from "its proi)erty of don pears or, two and one; but the counter keeping!" Arboretum et Fruticetuni Bri- seal appended to the deed of Surrender, tannicum, vol. ii. p. 882. preserved' among the Augmentation Re- ° "The Husbandman's fruitfiill Or- fords, bears a demi-crosier between three chard." p. 4. The Wardon seems to have Wardon pears. 'J'he late editors of Dug- been improved in later times; there is a dale's Alonasticon remark that Wardon sort now known as Uvedale's Wardon, pears were sometimes called Abbats' pears, otherwise Uvedale's St. Germain, which is j)Ut no autliority is given for the assertion. s -id to have been grown to weigh upwards of Monasticon, vol. V. p. 37L three pounds. It requires a wall. Loudon. VOL. V. R r