436
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. NOV. 26, 1904,
every rank would soon follow her steps, arid
thus a new tone would be given to society.
7. 'General Orders,' 'Horse Guards Cir- culars,' 'Articles of War.' Especially of the period 1835-45.
8. * Duelling Days in the Army,' by William Douglas, 1887. Especially the preface and pp. 235, 267. The author says that the prac- tice took a long time to die out in the British service ; the regulations were rendered com- pletely unavailing by long-established cus- tom, and merely caused a mock kind of concealment. When an officer was wounded in a duel, it was represented to the authori- ties although every man in the corps knew otherwise that he had sprained his ankle or broken his leg ; and when one of the com- batants fell, it was only put down to disease at home, apoplexy ; abroad, cholera or fever. The author adds that duelling was gradually dying a natural death in England when Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, but still flourished in India. W. S.
Mr. Carl A. Thimm's 'Complete Biblio- graphy of the Art of Fence, comprising
Duelling,' 1891 (second edition, 1896), serves as a verv good guide to the literature of this subject. W. C. B.
HAZEL OR HESSLE PEAKS (10 th S. ii. 349). Some thirty years ago Mr. James Tate contributed to the Proceedings of the Ber- wickshire Naturalists' Club a very interesting article on Jedburgh pears, in which the following is noted :
"Along the north side of the town is a locality called ' The Friars,' where some gardens belonging to the monks have been situated, and in which are some old pear trees. In this orchard is a Hesse] Pear tree, the first introduced into the district, anc which came direct from Hull, when the species was imported from the Continent. The tree is not very well grown, and Mr. Deans has a better specimer in his nursery. The fruit is turbinate shaped, o rather small size, but tender, sweet, and juicy with a pleasant aroma. It is ripe in October."
The Mr. Deans referred to above was a most noted cultivator of fruit trees. H introduced into Jedburgh William's Bon Chretien pear, a graft of which was sen him in a letter from London.
Jedburgh has long been noted for its frui trees. In 1773 Dr. John Walker wrote from Moffat to Lord Kames, " There is more frui about Jedburgh, and more fruit-bearing wooc upon the trees, than I have seen in any othe part of Scotland." The oldest of the orchards were laid out by the monks in the pristine days of the abbey. Some of the trees were (in 1813) about thirty or forty feet high. The kinds chiefly cultivated were the Auchan,
jongueville, Crawford, Lammas, Warden,.
3onchretien, Bergamot, Gallert, Jargonelle,
St. Catharine, Green Chisel, Drummond,
rey Gudwife, Pound Pear, Green Honey, Mother Cobe, Worry Carle, and Green Yair. So widespread was the fame of these pears hat they found a ready market at one time n the streets of London. In the garden of Abbey Grove there is still the stump of a. pecimen of the "Monks' Warden," which within the last twenty years bore fruit. At ne time it was quite a common occurrence- o hear in Newcastle-on-Tyne the cry of ' Fine Jethart Burgundy pears.'"'
A further quotation may be made from Mr. Tate's article :
"Of the ancient kinds, there is one called the Worry Carle,' of which no specimen remains in Tedburgh, but there is or lately was one at Ancrum, -hree miles distant. The trees are said to have )een extremely prolific, but the fruit was so woody s to be uneatable, and after long keeping, the )ears had to be boiled, like potatoes, before being ised. Tradition says that on one occasion a Jedburgh market gardener took a cartload of
- Worry Carles ' across the border to a fair at
Wooler, and the country people readily purchased the Jedburgh pears ; but as the honest burgher trotted homeward in the evening, he was pelted all along the road by the disgusted purchasers, who had tried in vain to masticate the hard knots of pears. Mr. Deans [already referred to] relates that his father once had a large quantity of the Worry Carle pear in his possession, which he laid past in a corner of his stable, and there they lay for twelve months, without any apparent change, their dusky- green colour being nearly as fresh as when they were taken from the tree. As they continued hard and insipid, he thought of boiling them, after which they became very eatable, and as sweet as honey. This seems to confirm the idea that the monks used the pears as a staple article of food, just as we now use turnips and potatoes ; and for that reason they chose a kind which was sure to produce a crop even in the worst of seasons. Thus they would be valuable articles of food at a time when the means of subsistence were not over abundant."
J. LINDSAY HILSON. Jedburgh Public Library.
The word "hazal" means dry, and the pears alluded to by J. T. F. are dry pears, as distinguished from juicy or sweet ones.
CHAS. F. FOKSHAW, LL.D,
Is it not almost certain that "hazel" refers to the colour of the fruit 1 ? My experience of this kind of pear is that it is not only "hardy,' ; but hard to the teeth. Dr. John- son's ' Dictionary ' gives two instances of the word used adjectivally :
"Chuse a warm dry soil, that has a good depth of light hazel mould. Mortimer."
"Uplands consist either of sand, gravel, chalk, rock or stone, hazelly loam, clay, or black mould. Mortimer."
