The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-10-03
Antiquity of the Apple.

Common fruits" a descriptive account
of the fruits ordinarily cultivated or
consumed in England, brings careful
study of antiquarian lore to the discus
sion of her subject. The following is
pleasant story about apples:
GAS the tree grows wild throughout
almost the whole of Britain, and as the
name, apple Tin Celtic A6hal,) is con-
sidered by the best authorities to be
derived from the pure Celtic ball, sig
nifying round body, it is more proba-
BILE that it is indigenous to this coun-
try than that it was introduced, as
some have thought, by the Romans
From time immemorial it has been the
badge of the Highland clan Lamont,
and In the earliest times branch of
apple was the mark of distinction con-
ferred on the Welsh bards who most
excelled in minstrelsy.
"In Saxon times we find William of
Malmesbury distinguishing that it was
under wild apple-tree that King Ed
gar once, in the year 97a, lay down to
sleep, which would seem to imply the
existence of domesticated also; and
after the Conquest traces of its culture
soon appear, for bull of Pope Alex
ander, bearing the date ll75, confirms
to the monastery of Winchcombe, in
Worcestershire, their claims on the
town of Twining, "with all its lands
and orchards" In the course of time
varieties were probably introduced
from Normandy and other parts of the
Continent, though little information on
the subject is to be gathered from early
writers on fruit cultivation; but the
oldest existing variety on record in
England is that which Phillips apostro-
phizes as
"sthe fair Pear-maine,
Tempered, like comeliest nymph, with white
and red,
a tenure in the country of Norfolk dated
A. D. 1900, having been held by the
yearly payments Of two hundred Pear
maine cyder.' The derivation of this
name, according to Hogg, is similar to
that of Charlemagne sometimes writ
ten Charlemaine, meaning, therefore,
Pyrus magnus, or the great pear-apple,
the shape bearing some resemblance to
that Of pear. By the time Of Henry
I'LL, Worcester had become famous for
its fruit trees, and cider orchards in
Herefordshire date from the days of
Henry WILL; when also, as Fuller in
forms us, one Leonard Maschal brought
spippins' from over sea, and planted
them at Plumstead in Sussex; while so
important had their culture become,
that in the thirty-seventh year Of the
same king the barking of apple trees
was declared to be felony.
cit was not, however, till the time
Of Charles /. that 'orcharding,' as it was
called, became general throughout this
country, and the 18th century may be
looked on as the Golden Age of apples.
Evelyn published an appendix to his
| SYLVIA, under the title of Pomona
which did much to bring the subject
under public attention; and by the ex'
ertions of the first Lord Scudamore
Herefordshire in particular became, as
it had been expressed, sone entire orch
ard This gentleman, being in the
company of the Duke Of Buckingham
when he was assassinated by FELTON,
received such shock from witnessing
this catastrophe, that he retired into
| private life and devoted all his energies
to the culture Of fruit. That kind t.
which he gave most attention was {
variety believed to have originated dur
ing the seventeenth century, and which
was at first called the Scudamore crab,
but afterwards the Redstreak.' It9wal
Evelyn's favorite also; and, indeed, SC
much was said and written about it du
J ring that century that modern author