Our viands

The cherry orchards of Kent are famous, and in good seasons extremely profitable, realising as much as ^30 to the acre, the fruit being sold on the trees, the buyer 198 OUR VIANDS taking all risk and the cost and trouble of picking and conveying them to market. One of the greatest risks is from the birds, which will strip a cherry tree in an hour or two in the early morning. But although cherries are grown in England in perfection, we yet receive vast quantities from France and Germany, in which latter country, miles of cherry trees line the roads, the fruit being used not only in cookery but for making the favourite liqueur known as Kirschwasser. It is also used for making Maraschino and ratafia, to say nothing of our old English favourite liqueur, cherry-brandy — particularly favoured during the winter season by sportsmen. For this the Morella cherry is best, which is generally gathered before it is ripe, and is therefore regarded as sour and unpalatable, but if allowed to hang on the tree till October it is a most delicious fruit. The cherry was formerly much used in games : that called cherry pit, which consisted of pitching the stones into a little hole, is often alluded to by old writers, as well as bob cherry, which is still played by children. The song of ' Cherry Ripe ' was written by the poet Herrick, in the time of Charles I. The French make a tisane of the cherry stalks for colds and coughs. Cherries, we believe, cannot be grown in hot countries, where they revert to the wild type. Berries have from the remotest ages formed an important part of the food of man. Milton speaks of the banquet of Eve as formed of fruits and berries from all climes. ' Whatever earth, all-bearing mother, yields In India, East or West, or middle shore, In Pontus or the Punic coast, or where Aleinous reign 'd, fruit of all kinds, in coat Rough, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell.' STONE FRUITS AND BERRIES 199 And, indeed, the fruits of the earth seem to be so widely distributed, and their cultivation dates back to such hoar antiquity, that it seems hardly possible to trace the primitive home of the commoner varieties. Thus, among the relics of the Lake-dwellers we find the strawberry, raspberry, black- berry, elderberry, bilberry, and whortleberry; and although all these grow wild in the woods, yet, when they are found stored with corn and other plants requiring cultivation, and with apples and plums, we may fairly suppose that they were, to a certain extent cultivated also, probably in gardens on the mainland, and they were perhaps boiled, or in some way preserved for use; otherwise the seeds would have germinated in the mud in which they have lain for so many centuries. The gooseberry and currant do not appear among these fruits of the Lake-dwellers, probably because they belong naturally to our northern climes, and were unknown in early times in Southern Europe, for these are hardy fruits, which thrive better in Scotland than England, although they grow freely and abundantly all over the British Isles.