| |
|
 |
 |
| |
| THE
QUEST FOR THE COSTARD
|
If the historical
references are complete, then The Costard is the second
oldest known English apple, second only to the Pearmain,
which was first recorded in 1204. The Old Pearmain and more
than one Winter Pearmain, still known, are probably not
the apple of 1204, but that is another story. The age of
the Costard makes it very special and it is unsurprising
that it has occupied many minds over the centuries. Today
it remains a compelling and vexing issue for the many who
hope to rediscover it. The quest has become something of
a mediaeval romance, where all the pleasures, adventures,
intrigues and diversions are in the ‘seeking’
and will probably never be in the ‘finding’.
The narrative is a long one, and open-ended. Such have been
the long breaks in its recorded history, such has been the
confusion between the Costard and the Catshead and so few
and inadequate have been the scant descriptions of the Costard,
that we barely know what we are looking for. |
|
| |
 |
 |
|
| |
|
 |
|
| |
|
 |
|
| |
|
 |
|
| |
|
Where does the name come from? Undoubtedly
it comes from the Latin word ‘Costa’, meaning a
rib, a flank or a side. Costa has become the stem of many more
words, such as Coast in England or Côte in France, meaning
a hillside. So we have our first clue. The Costard is ribbed
or sided. An alternative suggestion for the origin of the name
comes from various references in Shakespeare plays, such as
King Lear, Richard III and Love’s Labour’s Lost,
where ‘Costard’ was used in place of a ‘Head’
and even as the name of a character, but there are no supporting
usages of the word by others, as a ‘head’, and it
must simply have been a favourite word of Shakespeare, perhaps
signifying something large and hard – like a Costard.
The Oxford Dictionary gives one origin for Costard as ‘applied
derisively to the head (arch) 1530’.
There is always the possibility that the Costard
was originally French. George Lindley, in ‘A Guide To
The Orchard and Fruit Garden’, 1831, though wrongly considering
that Costard and Catshead were the same (more later) noted that
there was a ‘Coustard of the Normandy Gardens’ and
there was a Côtard once known on Jersey as a cider apple.
Or, perhaps, there was a French version of an English apple.
In 1597 Sir Thomas Tresham wrote a document mentioning that
an apple called ‘French Custard’ was growing in
Mr Dean’s garden at Ely. However, there is no known mention
of a Costard in any of the reference works in France, through
the ages, though their records have been more comprehensive
and often much earlier than ours.
|
| In
England, the first reference was in 1292 when it was mentioned
as Poma Costard in the fruiterers’ bills of Edward the First.
The fruiterer to Edward I bought 300 pounds of Costards to supply
the entourage when Edward stayed at Berwick Castle, during his
campaign in Scotland. Taylor, in 1946, in ‘The Apples of
England’, gives a slightly later date of 1297 - when they
were sold for a shilling per hundred at Oxford. He adds that the
price of 29 Costard apple trees was 3 shillings in 1325. Teresa
McLean, in ‘Medieval English Gardens’, 1980, has made
some interesting statements but has, unfortunately, not provided
references that allow us to follow her trail. We cannot say whether
they are hard facts or conjectures. She said “The
most popular medieval apple was the Costard, which made good cider
and good eating” and “They were good, vigorous growers,
their bark yielding a red dye, and they were the national favourite
until the 17th century”. McLean comments upon the
Earl of Lincoln, who came into the possession of a property at
Holborn, subsequently known as Lincoln’s Inn and Lincoln’s
Inn Fields, in 1286. He was a keen gardener, having many gardens,
and made a substantial income out of selling fruit and fruit trees.
She noted that he obtained apple and pear cuttings from the Continent
and that “The Costard apple arrived
in England at about this time, as did the Pearmain, used for making
cider, and they were probably both among the new breeds of apple
the Earl imported. We know for certain that he got two cuttings
of the Costard.” If the Costard was new from the
Continent in 1286 (the earliest date suggested) then it is hard
to see how new trees, from two cuttings, would have been capable
of generating 300 pounds of apples for Edward’s troops and
household in 1292. |
Another century on, around 1400AD, the Costarde
was mentioned in the ancient poem ‘The Pistel of Swete
Susan’ but we must then jump nearly two centuries further,
during which there was no known mention of the Costard. William
Lawson in ‘A New Orchard and Garden’, of 1597-1618,
said “Of your apple-trees you shall
find a difference in the growth. A good pippin will grow large,
and a Costard Tree: stead them on the North side of your other
apples...” The first description (albeit brief)
came in 1629 when John Parkinson published his ‘Paradisi
in Sole Paradisus Terrestris’ and wrote of two different
Costards! "The gray Costerd is a
good great apple, somewhat whitish on the outside, and abideth
the winter’ and ‘The greene Costerd is like the
other, but greener on the outside continually".
We now have something to pursue. It is a large apple, of quality
and lasting over the winter, but with different colours. The
‘greene Costerd’ is quite possibly the Green Custard
which is still known and is a large green, ribbed apple, which
will keep over the winter. For the first time we have the implication
that the Costard is a type of apple, perhaps in the ilk of Pippins
and Pearmains, rather than a single variety, and Lawson has
told us his Costard is a tall growing tree.
|
Green Custard
|
At
this point we have to address the confusion between Costard and
Catshead, which seems to have arisen early in the 19th century.
Comments upon this will punctuate our narrative, but for the moment
we only observe that Parkinson described both Catshead and Costard,
separately. From 1669 onwards, through various editions of the
‘Pomona’ attached to his ‘Sylva’, John
Evelyn wrote of both Catshead and Costard separately. In 1670,
Leonard Meager in the ‘The Compleat English Gardner’
listed three types of Costard, ‘the White, Grey and Red’.
John Rea in his ‘Flora seu de Florum Cultura 2nd edition’
of 1676 repeats white, gray and red. John Worlidge in his ‘Vinetum
Britannicum’ of 1678 said that he had not seen it but that
‘it was in many places of esteem’. He also noted Catshead
separately, as did John Ray in his ‘Historia Plantarum Generalis’
of 1686 who wrote of the Costard-Apple, as well as ‘go-no-further
or Catshead’. Ray, who wrote in Latin, said of the Costard
“Nor should be omitted from this catalogue
that which is called 'The Costard Apple', that was once held in
such high esteem, that an apple seller, as a kind of epithet,
was known by this name. For they are still today called 'Costard-mongers'”.
We are very grateful to Bryan Ward-Perkins and Mark Norman
for their help with a difficult Latin translation, beyond our
skills.
|
Catshead
|
|
Catshead
Catshead, Courtesy of Sheila Leitch, Marcher
Apple Network, from the Herefordshire Pomona
|
|
John Mortimer in
‘The Whole Art of Husbandry’ in 1708, repeated Worlidge’s
words but added that it was ripe in October. He also wrote of
Catshead. Richard Bradley, in his Dictionarium Botanicum of 1728
gives a list of apples "as are accounted
the best for Eating and Baking from Mr. Whitmill’s catalogue,
Gardiner and Nursery Man at Hoxton". He includes Costard
Apple as well as Catshead. Richard Weston, in ‘The Gardener’s
and Planter’s Calendar’ of 1773, said the Costard
was ripe in December. In 1778, Thomas Mawe and John Abercrombie,
in ‘The Universal Gardener and Botanist’, said of
the Costard Apple "large, irregular
and red striped" and just two lines lower said
"Cat’s-head Apple, very large , for culinary uses".
We know a little more. ‘A’ Costard
is ripe between October and December, is large, irregular and
red striped. Both Costard and Catshead were included in ‘A
Brief Catalogue of Fruit Trees, sold by William Pinkerton, Nursery
and Seedsman, in Wigan, Lancashire, 1782’. The list included
121 varieties of apple. William Forsyth in ‘A Treatise on
the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees’ in editions up
to 1810 listed Costard and Catshead. The Costard still appeared
to exist and be known into the 19th century, but then a pomological
disaster struck.
In the first collection catalogue of the London
Horticultural Society of 1826 no Costard was listed but there
were two Catsheads – ‘Catshead’ and ‘Round
Catshead’. This was also the case in the 1831 edition, but
the 1842 edition now listed Costard saying ‘see Catshead’
and Costard was given as a synonym of Catshead, under that entry.
It still included Round Catshead separately. Catshead was described
as being pale green, oblong, large, for kitchen use, top quality
and ripe from October to January. Round Catshead was described
as yellow, roundish, large, for kitchen use and ripe from December
to March. The timing of this allocation coincides with the entry
under Catshead by George Lindley, in ‘A Guide to The Orchard
and Fruit Garden’ in 1831. Lindley was the most influential
authority and writer of the time. Though otherwise meticulous
in his research and precision, he made a terrible mistake. He
said that Catshead was the same as the Costard of Ray (1688) and
for no reason that can be fathomed. Ray had noted both separately
as did so many other earlier writers. The ‘synonym-isation’
of Costard led to ‘no further enquiry’ and to its
decline, as well as to an increasing plurality of various Catsheads,
under the confusion.
|
The next observations on the Costard came with
the publication of ‘British Pomology’ by Dr Robert
Hogg, in 1851. He was manifestly describing apples from sight,
as the references he gave for the entry under Costard gave no
detail for him to repeat. Whether it was the right apple is
less than clear, as subsequent descriptions by him were different.
The entry in British Pomology reads “Above
medium size, two inches and three quarters, or three inches
wide, and three inches and a quarter high; oblong, but narrowing
a little towards the eye, distinctly five-sided, having five
prominent ribs on the sides, which extend into the basin of
the eye, and form ridges round the crown. Skin, smooth, dull
yellowish green, strewed all over with embedded grey specks.
Eye, partially closed with long acuminate segments, and set
in a rather deep and angular basin. Stalk, about a quarter of
an inch long, inserted in a round, rather shallow, and narrow
cavity. Flesh, greenish-white, tender, juicy, and with a brisk,
and pleasant sub-acid flavour. An excellent culinary apple of
first-rate quality. It is in season from October to Christmas.
The tree is hardy, a strong and vigorous grower, with strong
downy shoots, and an abundant bearer.” He adds
that “The true Costard is now rarely
to be met with.” While Hogg says the Costard will
go to Christmas, Parkinson had said that it “abideth the
winter.”
|
In 1872, the famed nurseryman of Merriott,
in Somerset, John Scott published his ‘The Orchardist’
and though, frustratingly, he failed to give a full description
of the Costard, he had some interesting observations to make
– and, clearly, from personal knowledge. He described
Costard as being large, of top quality, for the kitchen and
lasting till April. “Long and somewhat
square, or 5-angled or ribbed, from which it has evidently deserved
its Latinised name, i.e., Costa, a rib; one of our oldest English
Apples and is one of our best kitchen fruit. Tree very hardy,
and a great bearer; it is of low spreading growth, and produces
its fruit abundantly as far north as Breadalbane in Scotland,
where I have seen it bear heavy crops; it there bears the name
of Catshead, as it does in many other places, although wrongly.”
He also describes the Catshead, in detail, separately, while
noting the confusion that exists between Costard and Catshead.
He says of Hogg’s description of Catshead “there
appears to me to be a little confusion in the description which
Dr Hogg has given of this fruit in his pomology. The description
seems to belong to two different sorts of apple, viz., the Costard
and Catshead. The first is always, here, oblong and five-sided,
but the second always of an irregular roundish form, and is
grown plentifully in this neighbourhood, as is also the Costard.
The Doctor says—‘Fruit large, three and a quarter
inches broad and same in height; oblong.’ This cannot
be ‘the Cat’s Head’s weighty orb’ but
would do for the Costard. The two fruits are often confounded
by writers, yet are very distinct.” Scott’s
description of Catshead was of a large apple of top quality
“as a cooking Apple, November to February. Fruit very
large, round and irregular in outline; skin smooth and unctuous,
fine pale green, which becomes very light greenish yellow at
maturity, with a brownish tinge on the sunny side, strewn with
minute dots; Stalk short, inserted in a shallow irregular angled
cavity; eye large and open, set in an irregular angled deep
basin; flesh tender and sweet; juice plentiful, pleasantly acid,
and perfumed. A very old and useful Apple for dumplings.”
|
After this point, the quest becomes very murky.
Perversely, the descriptions are fuller and they have been taken
in modern times as the yardsticks against which to identify
the Costard, but the evidence is flawed. We must address the
accounts of the ‘Herefordshire Pomona’ and the fifth
edition of ‘The Fruit Manual’. The former was written
between 1876 and 1885, by Dr Hogg and Dr Bull, and the latter
was published in 1884 and written only by Dr Hogg. There does
not appear to be any record to confirm which of Hogg’s
writings were completed first. The stark revelation is that
the descriptions are inconsistent, and even inconsistent with
Hogg’s ‘British Pomology’.
|
The 1884 ‘Fruit Manual’, under Costard,
starts describing the features of Catshead, saying the
Costard is “no doubt synonymous
with the Catshead and this accounts for George Lindley
saying they are the same variety.” He then
qualifies the situation and in the same description
he says “Modern authors
make the Costard synonymous with the Catshead, chiefly,
I think, on the authority of Mr George Lindley, who
has it so in the ‘Guide to the Orchard’;
but this is evidently an error. All the early authors
who mention both varieties regard them as distinct.”
He points out that there are two other varieties of
Costard which “are undoubtedly distinct”
namely the Herefordshire Costard and the Gloucestershire
Costard. He describes them separately. Neither is quite
the description he offers of Costard in British Pomology
of 1851. Of Herefordshire Costard he says
“Fruit, large, three inches and a half wide at
the base, and four inches high; conical, larger on one
side of the axis than the other; towards the apex there
is a waist, from which it narrows abruptly to the eye,
where it is much ridged; it has prominent ribs and an
undulating outline. Skin, fine deep yellow on the shaded
side, and bright red on the side exposed to the sun,
where it is streaked with red and orange. Eye, small,
set in a deep narrow basin, with erect convergent segments,
half open. Stamens, median; tube, long, funnel-shaped.
Stalk, about half an inch long, stout, inserted in a
very deep and prominently ribbed cavity, sometimes with
a swelling on one side of it, which presses it in an
oblique direction. Flesh, white, very tender, with a
mild sub-acid flavour. Cells, long and narrow, pointed,
ovate; axile, open. A very handsome apple, much esteemed
for roasting, and especially for baking; in use from
November till January.” He received this
apple from Dr Henry Bull, the original tree not being
a large one (at about 50 years old in 1884) and having
generally been a shy bearer. Of Gloucestershire Costard
he says “Fruit, very large,
three inches wide, and three inches and a half high;
conical or somewhat cylindrical, prominently ribbed,
and with ridges round the eye; it is longer conical
than the Herefordshire Costard. Skin, almost entirely
covered with crimson streaks, mottled with the yellow
ground colour which shows between the streaks; on the
side which is shaded there is less crimson, but more
of the rich deep yellow; the surface is strewed with
minute dots. Eye, closed, with long segments, set in
a narrow, pretty deep, and plaited basin. Stamens, basal;
Tube, conical. Stalk, half an inch long, stout and deeply
set in an irregular furrowed basin. Flesh, yellow, tender,
sweet, and of good flavour. Cells, large, open, but
not wide open like the Codlins, as might be expected
from the appearance of the fruit; elliptical; axile.
This is a very handsome apple, of good flavour; but
more adapted for cooking than the dessert. It keeps
well till January.” He was describing a
particular fruit, received via Dr. Henry Bull.
|
|
Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Costards,
Courtesy of Sheila Leitch, Marcher Apple Network,
from the Herefordshire Pomona |
|
The bombshell is that these descriptions
were allocated to different names in the Herefordshire
Pomona, such that the Herefordshire Costard in the Herefordshire
Pomona carried the description of the Gloucestershire
Costard in the Fruit Manual and Vice Versa. The descriptions
were not identical but enough phrases were repeated to
be confident that some significant error occurred between
the publications of the two works. The Herefordshire Pomona
included coloured plates of the two apples, which seem
consistent with the text attached, but the error makes
both publications untrustworthy. The Herefordshire Pomona
also misquotes Parkinson (1629) saying that the Costard
‘abideth not the winter’,
whereas Parkinson said it ‘abideth
the winter’. Hogg’s Fruit Manual did
not make this mistake and quoted correctly.
We have two descriptions that cannot
be attached with any confidence to two names, besides
which, neither appears to accord well with the brief descriptions
of the Costards that were made in centuries before.
|
|
The
trail of the Costard was rather cold by 1883, when the
Royal Horticultural Society held its National Apple Congress
at Chiswick. Two different Costards and two different
Catsheads were exhibited and described by Barron, the
author of the report of the Congress. One Costard was
exhibited by Cranston Nursery of Hereford and was described
as being very large, oblong, green, soft, early season
and a fine culinary apple. The other was exhibited by
Messrs J. Jefferies and Son of Cirencester, Gloucestershire,
being described as small, culinary, conical, tapering,
angular, yellow, streaked, acid, mid-season and of third
quality. By virtue of season or size, neither could be
the true Costard. After the subsequent RHS exhibition
of 1888, the report included an appraisal of apples suited
to growing in Lincolnshire, as selected by Mr Johnson,
Mr Picker and Rowson Bros. Nursery. Both Catshead and
Costard were included, so perhaps Lincolnshire might still
have the Costard growing, if anonymously.
|
The 20th century held no reliable sightings. Taylor,
in ‘The Apples Of England’, 1946, said that
by the end of the 17th century it was fast disappearing
(though there is no evidence to suggest it was disappearing
so early). He added that “the
apples exhibited at shows as Costard are usually other
old varieties.” This statement allows that
not all were other varieties. It is hard to know how
he could be certain that a true Costard was not among
them. He had “not been able
to find in England a tree of the Costard”
and surmised that “This
historic apple seems to have disappeared.”
Nurseries still offered Costards but Taylor was probably
right and that they were other old varieties. Towards
the end of the century and into the 21st the hunt resumed
and over-enthusiastic ‘identifiers’ discovered
and named several ‘costards’ to add to the
multitude coming out of the 19th century. We now have,
apart from several apples simply named Costard, the
following names - Cornish Costard, Crimson Costard,
Coustard, Custard, Custard Apple, Custard Scarlet, Downway
Costard, French Custard, Gloucestershire Costard, Green
Custard, Greene Costerd, Gray Costerd, Herefordshire
Costard, Martin’s Custard, Pope’s Scarlet
Costard, Red Costard, Red Custard, Royal Costard, Scarlet
Costard, Summer Costard, White Costard, White Custard,
White-Costard Gray, Wotton Costard and more added yearly.
We might also add in apples called ‘costing’
or ‘costin’, such as Summer Costing and
White Costin, which might be corruptions of Costard.
Most of these are not now known, their names not being
attached to living examples.
If we take the view (as we do) that trees can live
much longer than commonly supposed and that, in times
past, local owners would have grafted new trees for
their own use, to replace their ancient ones, and would
have passed grafts around, then true Costards are probably
still growing as old anonymous trees, of which there
is a very considerable number. The concern, in the modern
age, is that they are often carelessly and incorrectly
awarded the wrong name. The ongoing confusion with Catshead,
started by Lindley (1831) and noted by Hogg and Scott,
has now resulted in a disastrous number of different
apples being identified as Catshead, purely on the basis
of being large, green and ribbed. Some might be Costards.
We have observed, over the years, that some apples which
are not Catshead have been exhibited as such. They are
large, green, ribbed, oblong, often with a waist, late
season and keeping over the winter. The apple we have
named as Wotton Costard is strikingly similar to several
sightings of these non-Catsheads, almost all encountered
in the western counties. Given Scott’s observations
on this regular misnaming, considered above, we wonder
if they might just be the true Costard. It is only a
‘might’.
|
|
Costard (Howlett)
Pope's Scarlet Costard
|
| What
do we really know of the Costard? Not enough!
1. If, in the 13th century it was a single
variety, then it became two, early in the 17th century
and then three, later that century. It might have been
a class of apple, like the Pippin or the Pearmain.
2. If we assume that the old Greene Costerd
still exists as the extant Green Custard then we have
a shape, form and character to go on.
3. If we believe that really old varieties
still exist as living old trees, replicated over the centuries,
we can have faith that the old Costards still exist, albeit
without their names.
4. If we take Scott at his word, we know
that Costards are not as big or rounded as Catsheads and
are green, oblong, five sided and late season keeping
apples.
5. If we allow the hypothesis that Costards
are a ‘type’ of apple we might still find
the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Costards, noted
by Hogg and Bull, which are still close enough in time
for trees to exist. Unfortunately, the confusion with
their descriptions will make it difficult.
|
Of the various apples purporting to be Costards, most
can be dismissed. There is a Herefordshire Costard,
known and grown in places in Herefordshire, which is
a green-yellow ribbed apple and not the red coloured
one of Hogg. We have two versions from Herefordshire
here, where the fruit has not yet been sufficiently
compared, but which might prove to be the same. They
might also be the same as the Costard Apple of Hereford
which is held at Wisley. Hatfield House have two Costard
trees that were planted in the 1970s from trees supplied
by the original Keepers Nursery (the apple being different
from the Costard being supplied by the current Keepers
Nursery). The Hatfield Costard appeared very close to
the coloured Herefordshire (or Gloucestershire) Costard
of Hogg, but a recent DNA test showed it to be the same
as Pope’s Scarlet Costard – an apple bred
in the early 20th century. The appearance seemed very
different between the two, but it just goes to show
how deceptive apples can be. It seems probable that
Pope’s Scarlet Costard has turned up in several
places as just ‘Costard’. The Costard now
sold by Keepers Nursery is a green apple, very similar
in appearance to the Wotton Costard, though Keepers
inherited this from their predecessors (without any
history or provenance) and it would be a remarkable
coincidence if they turned out to be the same. There
is also a Crimson Costard known to the Marcher Apple
Network in Herefordshire, though we have not seen it,
or know of the provenance of its naming. We also have
to consider a set of apples, very similar, if not the
same, named Catshead in the western counties but which
are wrongly named. The ancient Wotton Costard is also
very similar in appearance to these. It is hard to have
faith in other contenders. All those brought into the
National Collection at Brogdale, under the name Costard,
have been found to be wrong. Their Costard (Supposed)
and Costard (Howlett) are both Pope’s Scarlet
Costard.
In conclusion, frustrating as it is, and dispiriting
not to be able to find such an ancient apple, we must
accept that re-connecting the name to some old tree
(which will still exist) cannot be done with certainty.
It has been our compelling experience that the more
an apple is described, the greater are the inconsistencies
and the greater the confusion. We just don’t have
enough reliable information to go on. Perhaps there
will be some old document, buried in some archive, that
will unlock the mystery. For those of us who savour
mystery and who set The Quest above its resolution,
there will be a perverse hope that the Costard will
never be found. To look at an apple from some ancient
tree and say ‘I wonder if….’ is the
greater pleasure. Regardless, the quest will go on.
|
|
Hatfield Costard
Wotton Costard |
Herefordshire Costard (Wisley)
|
Costard
(Berrington Hall)
|
Red Costard
|
|
|
