Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/378

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. NOV. *, 1911.

of which is laid in Canterbury, we read : The Canon sighed but, rousing, cried, " I answer
 * Nell Cook,' written about 1840, the scene

to thy call, And a warden-pie's a dainty dish to mortify

withal."

E. G. B.

[We have forwarded to MB. HARRIS STONE the extract from Hogg's ' Fruit Manual ' sent by MR. ANDREW HOPE. MR. A. E. P. RAYMUND BOWLING is also thanked for reply.]

PEARS : " BON CHRETIEN " AND " DOY- ENNE DU COMICE " (US. iv. 309). The origin of the name " bon chretien" for a sort of pear is, I think, to be found in Rabelais, ' Pantagruel,' Liv. IV. ch. 54 :

" En fin de table, Homenaz nous donna grand nombre de grosses et belles poires, disant : Tonez, amis : poires sont singulieres, lesquelles ailleurs ne trouverez. Non toute terre porte tout : Indie seule porte le noir ebene....en ceste isle si'ule naisseiit ces belles poires. Faictes-en, si bon vous semble, pepinieres en vos pays. Comment, demanda Pantagruel, les nommez- vous ? Elles me semblent tres-bonnes, et de bonne eau. Si on les cuisoit en casserons par quartiers avecques un peu de vin et de sucre, je pense que seroit viende tres-salubre tant es malades comme es sains. Non aultrement, respondit Homeiiaz. Nous sommes simples gents, puis-qu'il plaist a Dieu. Et appellons les figues, figues ; les prunes, prunes ; et les poires, poires. Vraiement, dist Pantagruel, quand je serai en mon mesnage (ce sera, si Dieu plaist, bien tost), 3 'en affierai et enterai en mon jardin de Touraine sus la rive de Loire, et seront dictes poires de bon Christian. Car onques ne vid Christians meilleurs que sont ces bons papimanes."

A. D. JONES. Oxford.

The name ' ; Doyenne du Cornice " comes from the fact that this pear was raised in the garden of the Cornice Horticole at Angers. The original tree first fruited in 1849.

Mr. R. D. Blackmore, the author of ' Lorna Doone,' was a great authority on pears, and said of this variety :

' ; This is, to my mind, the best of all pears ; very healthy, a certain cropper, of beautiful growth, and surpassing flavour. I have grown it to the weight of 14 oz. on heavily cropped trees. But on a \vall it is far inferior."

Popular and modern opinion confirms the novelist's verdict.

There is a Doyen Dillen, and there are twenty-nine pears which rejoice in the name of " Doyenne " not " Doyenne."

ANDREW HOPE. [ Exeter.

Hogg, ' Fruit Manual,' 5th ed., mentions several Bon Cretien pears, and considers the winter Bon Cretien to be the type of the c lass. It is ripe from December to March.

He mentions several explanations of the- name, but says : " Perhaps the most prob- able derivation is from the Greek panchresta,. from TTO.V and XP 1 ? " 1 ^ an d of which the Chrustumium of the Romans may also be a derivation." I cannot find this word. The proposed derivation seems far-fetched.

J. F. R.

The origin of the name Bon Chretien has never been definitely determined. It is- thought to be the Crustumiumof the Romans; and Munting affirms that it appears to hav& received its present name at the beginning of Christianity, and that from its title it deserved the respect of all gardeners. Switzer explains that the pears are so called from not rotting at the heart, but beginning to decay from the exterior.

Another name for the pear is Bon Chretien de Tours or de St. Martin, that saint being said to have first obtained the variety perhaps more probably from its coming into season at Martinmas.

There is still a further derivative given, viz., that St. Francis de Paula, the founder of the Minims, brought the species from Calabria, where it is said to grow in great quantities, introducing it into France at the time when he was .ordered by Pope Sixtus IV. to a,ttend the dying Louis XL. The affectionate name of both monarch and people for the saintly and humble visitor was " Le bon chretien," and this was con- ferred on the fruit he introduced. Ram- bosson in the ' Histoire des Plantes ' (Paris,. 1868) has this remark :

" Le Bon Chretien nous a t donn6 par Saint Francois de Paula que Ton surnommait le Bon Chretien : L'humble Francois de Paule etait par excellence,.

Chez nous nomine le bon chretien ; Et le fruit dont le saint fit part a notre France

De ce nom emprunta le sien."

A. E. P. RAYMUND DOWLING.

The ' N.E.D.' gives quotations (under Bon) for Bon Chretien from 1575. I re- member that, more than 50 years ago, my father explained the name to me as. meaning that it was a thoroughly good pear, without any nonsense or hypocrisy from peel to core as good as it professed to be ; just what a " good Christian " is, as distinguished from those who think more of outward show. ERNEST B. SAVAGE.

St. Thomas', Douglas.

BRISTOL M.P.'s : HART AND KNIGHT FAMILIES (US. iv. 247, 291). It is such a feat to catch my friend MR. DUNCOMBE PINK tripping, however infinitesimal may