Pears by this time had become common, for there are records of varieties to a considerable number and in large quantities which could have been had only from rather extensive orchards. Mrs. Evelyn Cecil[5] publishes documents from the Record office of England which contain items of pears bought for Henry III and Edward I at different times in the thirteenth century, the first date being "probably for the year 1223." The pears appear to be of French origin, and the varieties are Caloels, Pesse Pesceles, Ruler, and Martyns. In a later memorandum, 1292-93, still other varieties are named as the Regul, Calwel, Dieyer, Sorell, Chryfall, and Gold Knoper. The pears were sold by the hundred and were used for desert, though "pears in syrup" and pears for cider are mentioned. The perusal of these documents, printed in considerable detail in Mrs. Cecil's admirable book, enables us to fix the beginning of commercial pear culture in England at as early a date as 1200. Passing by several other references from records and financial accounts of monasteries in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as too vague to be of importance, although they make certain that the pear was rather widely cultivated in England in these two centuries, we come at last to a noteworthy landmark in pear history in England, the introduction of the Warden pear, which may be put at the conveniently vague date of the end of the fourteenth century, 1388 being the first year they are mentioned. "Warden" was a name used for centuries to designate a group of pear varieties having crisp, firm flesh and which were used for culinary purposes. Their history runs back to the Cistercian Abbey of Warden in Bedfordshire and to a date earlier than 1388. Warden pears were favorites for centuries for pies and pastries which every early cook-book contained recipes for making. In the early English literature they are considered a distinct fruit as "apples, pears, quinces, wardens," and even the herbals and early fruit books count them as distinct. Shakespeare's clown in _A Winter's Tale_ says: "I must have saffron to colour the Warden pies." The name came to signify any long-keeping, cooking pear and even yet is so used in parts of England.