The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-10-02
Antiq uity of the Apple.


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 4bhol,) is con
sidered by the best authorities to b.
derived from the pure Celtic ball, sig
nifying a round body, 1t is more prooa
BILE that it is indigenous to this coun
trv than that it was introduced, as
some have thought, by the Romans
From time inmemorial it has been the
badge of the Highland clan Lamont
and III 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 1T was
under wild apple-tree that King Ed
gar once, in the year 973, lay down to
Sleep, which would seem to imply the
existence of domesticaued also; and
after the Conquest traces of its culture
soon appear, for bull of Pope Alex
ander, bearing the date IT'S, 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
"'the fair Pear-maine,
Tempered, like comeliest nymph, with white
and red,'
a tenure in the country of N orfolk 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
it's fruit trees, and cider orchards in
Herefordshire date from the days Of
Henry VIII; 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.
/" 1t was not, however, till the time
of Charles l. 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-
Herefordshire in particular became, as
it had been expressed, 'one entire orch
ard This gentleman, being in the
company of the Duke of Buckingham
when he was assassinated by FELTON,,
received such a shock from witnessing
this catastrophe, that he retired into
private life and devoted all his energies
to the culture of fruit. That kind to
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.' 1t was
Evelyn's favorite also and, indeed, so
much was said and written about it du-
ring that century that modern author
leaving out Of view evidently the fatal
gift of Paris and all that grew there
from, ventures the bold remark con-
corning it that perhaps there is no APP
pie which at any period created such
sensation Phillips, of Splendid Shil-
ling celebrity, who wrote an entire po-
EN- in Virgilian measure upon 'Cyder,'
which had also the honor of being trans
lated into Italian, in this very apothesis
of apples thus exalts this idol of the
day:
"' Let every tree in every garden own,
The Redstreak as supreme, whose pulpous
fruit
With gold irradiate and vermillion shines,
Tempting, not fatal, as the birth of that
Primeval interdicted plant that won
Fond Eve in hapless hour to taste and die.
This, of more bounteous influence, inspires
Poetic raptures, and the lowly muse
Kindles to loftier strains even Iperceive
Her sacred virtue. See! the numbers flow
Easy, whilst cheered with her nectareous
juice,
Hers and my country praises exalt.'
calais for the power of fashion, even
in the matter ofapples! The Redstreak
ia now held but in S1iOht esteem -