and fruit at the end, this on the sides of the branch. Next the sun, the fruit has a dark red flush, and is about the size of a small jeneting pear. In September, so rough as to be ready to strangle one. But being then gathered and kept till October, they eat as well as any medlar."
Ray's account[1] in 1724 is as follows: "The true Service or Sorb. It hath been observed to grow wild in many places in the mountainous part of Cornwall by that ingenious young gentleman, Walter Moyle, Esq., in company with Mr. Stevens of that county. I suspect this to be the tree called Sorbus pyriformis, found by Mr. Pitt, alderman of Worcester, in a forest of that county, and said to grow wild in many places of the morelands in Staffordshire by Dr. Plot, Hist. Nat. Stafford, 208." In modern times the tree has, however, never been found wild in any part of Cornwall or Stafford, and probably it was confused with Pyrus latifolia.[2]
Nash,[3] in 1781, refers to the tree in the Wyre forest as occurring "in the eastern part of Aka or Rock parish, about a mile from Mopson's Cross, between that and Dowles Brook, in the middle of a thick wood belonging to Mr. Baldwyn, which I suppose to be the Sorbus sativa pyriformis, mentioned by Mr. Pitt in the Philosophical Transactions for 1678, called by the common people the Quicken pear tree."
This tree was figured by Loudon,[4] t. 644, from a drawing sent him by the Earl of Mountmorris. The Rev. Josiah Lee, rector of the Far Forest, told Mrs. Woodward that the old inhabitants of the district, where it was called the " Whitty Pear tree," used to hang pieces of the bark round their necks as a charm to cure a sore throat. Lee's Botany of Worcestershire, 4, gives a good figure of this tree "from a sketch taken many years ago," and another as it appeared in 1856; and says that in 1853 it was in a very decrepit state, producing a little fruit at its very summit. It was burnt down in 1862, by a fire kindled at its base by a vagrant. In a note Lees says that he thinks the tree must have been brought from Aquitaine and planted beside a hermitage in the forest, of which no trace is left but a mound of stones overgrown by brambles. He found the privet and Prunus domestica occurring near it, and nowhere else in the forest.
A seedling (Plate 46) from the Wyre forest tree is growing on the lawn at Arley Castle, near Bewdley, formerly the property of Lord Mountmorris, now the residence of Mr. R. Woodward. I measured it in 1903, when it was 55 feet high by 7 feet 4 inches in girth, and quite healthy, though a large hole in the trunk has been filled with cement. A few seedlings have been raised from it at Arley, but grow very slowly.
There is a large healthy tree in the park at Ribston Hall, Wetherby, the seat of Major Dent, of the pyriform variety, which in 1906 I found to be about 65 feet high by 9 feet in girth, and bearing fruit. This tree was probably brought from France by the same Sir. H. Goodricke who sowed the original Ribston pippin in 1709.
- ↑ Ray, Synopsis Methodica, ed. 3, p. 542.
- ↑ Miller, Gard. Dict. iii. ed. (1737), under Sorbus sativa, says, "The manured service was formerly said to be growing wild in England; but this I believe to be a mistake, for several curious persons have strictly searched those places where it was mentioned to grow, and could not find it; nor could they learn from the inhabitants of those countries that any such tree had ever grown there."
- ↑ History of Worcestershire, i. {[sc|ii}}.
- ↑ Loudon gives the measurements in 1838 as 45 feet high, with a diameter of trunk at a foot from the ground of 1 foot 9 inches, and states that it was in a state of decay at that time.
