The Hartlib Papers

Title:Part Of Letter, John Beale To Hartlib?
Dating:9 April 1658
Ref:52/22A-25B
Notes:Beginning of letter missing.
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<Hartlib: No. 25)>
2        Apr.9. 58.   Mr Pell.   Cyder fruite.
I must now thanke you for Mr Pells excellent communications. Hee confirmes our former discourses, That honey or a kind of Sugar may bee extracted out of Peares. In some hundreds of places of this small County, wee have now tried it That the harshest & unpleasant peares, or wilde apples make the richest & most vinous liquor. Without hyperbole, I assure you, as being in sport & for further testimones <oft-times> an eye witnesse to it, That our hungry swine will not bite these peares, & most especially the bareland peare of Bosbury which makes a liquor That in comon houses & with little or no care increaseth strength & excellency for 3 yeares together, & in the second yeare takes a deepe fulvous color, & hath a pungent stroke on the tongue as I have found in well-comended Greeke Wines. I say the pig will refuse this peare, disdeigning to smell to it, as if it were a stone, or clod. Other like unpleasant peares wee have, of most strong liquor of divers operations & different tasts, that beare constantly, & plentifully in very shallowe, stony, & hilly ground. And that ever proveth strongest, which at first sheweth a fullnesse of fierce or pungent spirits, & lasteth longest before it bee clarifyed & pleasant. which sort was surely unknowne to the ancient, as appeares by their
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Tradition, That perry will not hold out against the heate of Summer. If the liquor of some peares bee harsh, or long before it becomes pleasant, then wee have found out other peares which will bee insteede of Sugar to sweeten thiese Wines: And wee knowe in the Must-mill howe to mixe them for any pallate, & for any season of the yeare. One peare here called the red horse peare of Felton, or of Longland, is of a pleasant masculine vigour, especially in dry grounds & hath a peculiar quality to overcome all blasts. Our Catholique rule, That hath begotten most wonder, & is nowe in most places observd, is to mingle crabs a little hoorded with all sorts of perry, to take away the windinesse: It brings the worst sort of peares to bee an excellent liquor, overlasting the heate of summer, & if well ordered in the mill, no man can guesse, That eyther crab or peare made any of the liquor. Since my small treatise gave notice of it, tis evry where in esteeme. But by further experience, Wee have found, That many sorts of apples & peares newely raysd from the kernells, & a little taken off from their wildernesse (rather by remoovalls, & some iniuryes, then by graffing,) does make
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newe kinds of excellent liquor.. And (though I dare not adventure for any generall rule) yet here the peare that is inforct against its nature upon a clayland, &, the apple, that is enforct upon a light sandy land, beare the richest liquor; The perry strong like cider; & the cider pleasant, as perry. And the hot ryeland that beares the brightest rye, yieldes generally the richest liquor.. I can nowe assure you of the triall of stockin apples in a whole hogshead of cider, as my selfe had formerly oft-times tried pippins of divers kinds, Quinings, Quinceapples, pearemains &c (of which the pearemaine & pippins provd the best cider) & none of these are to bee compard with our common musts, & redstrakes, [impe?] apples, & croft crab, all which are but crabs a little-helped or retarded with some iniuryes in the transplantation; their remedy being thereby in the distribution of the rootes into the finer soyle of the surface. And of thiese the red-strake (which does yet carry the best esteeme for soone-bearing, for greatest plenty, & best cider, & most constantly,) it is but a shrub, as much lesse then the fayrest sort of apple trees, as it is bigger then the Kentish [catchword: Codling]
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Codling.   I wish Mr Pell would enquire Whether this kind of Redstrakes bee elsewhere found : & what colours the best cider-fruite of peares or apples have. Generally here the precedence is given to the redstrakt, or redcheekt. But the right & best redstrake, which makes the fullvous [deletion] rich liquor, may bee knowne, as well by his speedy decay, (not lasting above 50 or 60 yeares) as by the smallnes of the tree, frequently laden with large red apples of a spicy small, not much pleasing the pallate, The woode of the young [word deleted]<boughes> & newe sprouts of a deeper browne, & thic of very small freckles.
                 Mr Austin suspects, That wee in Herefordshire talke of cider at randome, & never heede the choice, or art of making it, or vesselling it. Indeed (till of late yeares) wee had much fruite, & were notoriously negligent of finding the benefit of it. Soe that (except in fewe places) it was an unreguarded Windy drinke fit only for clownes & daylabourers. But when the late King came to Hereford, after his overthrowe in Nasby-fight, some of the gentry presented him with the best sort of redstrake, which was so hugely admird by the King Lord Digby, & all the other Courtiers, That from that day to this, in all Parishes, & especially amongst the Gentry
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<H: No. 25> 3   Apr.9. 58. Cyder
There is an anniversary Emulation, by what triall, choice, meanes or art they can rayse the best cider; And hee that hopes for Victory sends his Samplar into Hereford to Dr Boswood &c to bee iudges of the Question <as touching gust & wholsomnes>. Hence our Orchards are wonderfully increasd in thiese fewe yeares, & our skill is soe much, soe perfected by infinite experiences, That there is scarse one man of thousands, but scornes the comparison of Wine. In thiese words you must not challenge mine owne iudgement; For pallats will differ & I (for some yeares) have beene accustomed to abhor any[altered] other drinkes, but Wine & water. But I made triall lately in mine owne house with Vine d [Hay?] by a Merchant of Bristoll highly extolled, this compard with a liquor compounded of crabs & wild peares, was soe much inferiour in the iudgement of all men woemen, & children, That the comparison was ridiculous. This last Assises, at Coll. Harloes table wee compard our best of French wines with redstrakes, many strangers there, not all of us Englishmen; no man allowd Wine to bee worthy of the comparison. More of this in a peculiar discourse. If the cider bee made of hars-
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her apples, as of croft crab, Bromsbury crab & such wildings, which doe noe way differ from ordinary crabs, but that the fruite is larger & fuller of a harsh iuice, then wee mingle with it (the crabs beeing a little hoorded) some of those peares, that have a pleasant iuice: And to sweete & luscious peares wee mingle the comon crab; & in this case (especially if there bee a scarcity of crabs,) there is noe necessity of hoording the crabs. For female pallats wee allowe the more of the pleasant peares, & then it tasts like Wine with Rosewater & sugar; but men do generally abhorre all degrees of sweetenesse. Beeing made strong & vinous for mens pallats, in the first sumer it wilbe (of many kinds) as greene as the greene glasses, which were usd to recomend Rhenish Wine; as coole in the mouth as snowe, & as Warme in the stomac, as hypocrasse made of sacke & best spices. If it fayles of
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this heate the first summer, the second Summer it will not fayle; & will burne as quic & lively as any wine. I may well tell you of the increase of excellency <in> the third summer: For upon late trialls, wee begin nowe to doubt, whether, if well layd up, some kinds will not continue, & increase strength till it becomes as Aqua vitæ. Some helpes wee have found in the way of fermentation, whilst it is in the must for some fewe houres after grinding; some in the well grinding of it, for which our must mills, are much fitter than any other way of stamping or bruiseing them; Some helpe is in the care of chooseing & preferring that which comes easiest from the cheesering, without compression as is in Wine observd; some rules wee have to prepare & fit the vessells that neyther the woode, nor sluttery may corrupt the taste; & wee knowe what degree of ripenes & howe many dayes of hoording on the heape, evry severall kind of fruite doth require. All thiese
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directions cannot bee conteind in such a short discourse, & yet this is allready too long for a letter, that should passe over the Helvetian mountaines. This I would briefely note
     1 From this encouragement which was taken here from the late Kings, & his Courtiers applause, which cost them nothing but lip labour, & [congyes?] wee may see, howe much this land might bee speedily improved, if our Patriots would but affoord a due countenance, or by their example take the benefit of this noble kind of agriculture, which is the easiest, cheapest, & most profitable.
           2 Howe wonderfull this improvement may bee all over the nation, may appeare in that the best of these peares growe upon very bare, & sandy hills, or vales. Crabs upon any mound or banke that may bee raysed upon a heath. one pearetree ordinarily to beare yearely 40,50,60,70 gallons of statutes measure, some (as I formerly noted) 5,6, or 7 times as much.
          3 It may bee sorted for all pallats, & for all complexions, to open or bind the belly &c
     4 As printing excells writing & begat a newe wonder of greate efficacy; Soe this discovery excells our former knowledge of thiese liquors, & the nature of the fruite.
          Note this, That since I undertooke this argument [left margin:] within ten miles of this place, wee made in one yeare above 50 thousand hogsheads, as I examind, not by phansy, but by rule <& inquiry>, & as I shall further shewe upon occasion.