Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/400

 300 STATE OF HORTICULTURE IN ENGLAND Bourdeaux, who had doubtless been summoned from Guienne, to impart to EngUsh gardeners the method of culture practised by the vine-dressers of the Garonne. It was part of the economy of the Windsor vineyard, as of others, to make nearly as much verjuice as wine, a circumstance which may indicate, perhaps, the poorness of the vintage. Verjuice was much used in the sauces and other culinary preparations of those times, and appears to have been prepared either from the juice of the grape, from vine-leaves or from sorrel. The only interesting remark made by Necham on the vine refers to its usefulness when trained against the house front J. From the time of Necham till the close of the thirteenth century we have little information respecting English horticul- ture that is not supplied by records, authorities which are necessarily meagre in detail. In considering their contents it will be convenient to take the several fruits mentioned in some sort of order ; and first as to the Pear. In accounts of the fourth and twentieth years of Edward I., 1276, 1292, we find enumerated among purchases for the royal garden at Westminster, plants, or sets, of pears called Kaylewell, or Calsweir, RewF, or de Regula, and Pesse-pucelle ; these are rude versions of the names of Erencli varieties formerly in great repute. The Kaylewell was the Caillou, a Burgundy pear ; hard, of inferior quality, and fit only for baking or stewing. The Rewl' was the pear of St. Regie, which we have seen noticed by Necham in the twelfth century, and ap- pears to have derived its name from the village of St. Regie, in Touraine. The Pesse-pucelle ^ may have been the variety anciently known in Prance as the " Pucelle de Saintonge ;" there was also another sort called " Pucelle de Plandres." Of these varieties the Caillou seems to have been most commonly grown in England -. there is extant a writ of Henry HI. directing his gardener to plant it both at Westminster and in the garden at the Tower. In pursuing our enquiry as to the difi'erent kinds of pear known in this country in the thirteenth century, much valuable assistance is derived from a series of bills dehvered into the Treasury by the fruiterer of Edward I. in the year 12921 They enumerate in addition to the St. Regie, Caillou, and Pesse-pucelle pears, others named Martins, Dreyes, Sorehs, Gold-knobs ("Gold-knopes"), and j " Paiiipinus latitudine sua excipit aeris ^ Also called " Pas-pucelle." insultus, cum res ita desiderat, et fenestra ' Now preserved in the Chapter-house, clemeutiamcalorissolarisadmittit." Lib. ii. Westminster.