October

William Hamilton

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Apple Harvest
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Our Apple harvest has been over for nearly a fortnight; but how pleasant the orchard was while it lasted, and how pleasant the seat in the corner by the Limes, whence we see the distant spire on the green wooded slopes. The grey, gnarled old Apple-trees have, for most part, done well. The Ribstone Pippins are especially fine, and so is an apple, which we believe to be the King of the sorts — probably local varieties, — which no pomologist, however able and obliging, would undertake to name. One of the prettiest of Apples — and one of the best, too — is the Delaware. It has an orange-red colour, and reminds one almost of an Orange as it hangs upon the tree. It has a crisp, delicious flavour, but requires to be eaten as soon as ripe, for otherwise it soon gets mealy. Indeed all eating apples, with but few exceptions, are best when freshly gathered, or better still, when, on some clear soft day, they have just fallen on the grass, and lie there, warmed by the rays of the autumn sun.
.................. From A Year in a Lancashire Garden by Henry A. Bright, 1891