Читать книгу The Pears of New York - U. P. Hedrick - Страница 13

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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.