r ten pounds
are yearly given for the heaviest fruit. The 'Gooseberry Grower's
Register' is published annually; the earliest known copy is dated 1786,
but it is certain that meetings for the adjudication of prizes were
held some years previously.[739] The 'Register' for 1845 gives an
account of 171 Gooseberry Shows, held in different places during that
year; and this fact shows on how large a scale the culture has been
carried on. The fruit of the wild gooseberry is said[740] to weigh
about a quarter of an ounce or 5 dwts., that is, 120 grains; about the
year 1786 gooseberries were exhibited weighing 10 dwts., so that the
weight was then doubled; in 1817 26 dwts. 17 grs. was attained; there
was no advance till 1825, when 31 dwts. 16 grs. was reached; in {356}
1830 "Teazer" weighed 32 dwts. 13 grs.; in 1841 "Wonderful" weighed 32
dwts. 16 grs.; in 1844 "London" weighed 35 dwts. 12 grs., and in the
following year 36 dwts. 16 grs.; and in 1852 in Staffordshire the fruit
of this same variety reached the astonishing weight of 37 dwts. 7
grs.,[741] or 895 grs.; that is, between seven and eight times the
weight of the wild fruit. I find that a small apple, 61/2 inches in
circumference, has exactly this same weight. The "London" gooseberry
(which in 1862 had altogether gained 343 prizes) has, up to the present
year of 1864, never reached a greater weight than that attained in
1852. Perhaps the fruit of the gooseberry has now reached the greatest
possible weight, unless in the course of time some quite new and
distinct variety shall arise.

This gradual, and on the whole steady increase of weight from the
latter part of the last century to the year 1852, is probably in large
part due to improved methods of cultivation, for extreme care is now
taken; the branches and roots are trained, composts are made, the soil
is mulched, and only a few berries are left on each bush;[742] but the
increase no doubt is in main part due to the continued selection of
seedlings which have been found to be more and more capable of yielding
such extraordinary fruit. Assuredly the "Highwayman" in 1817 could not
have produced fruit like that of the "Roaring Lion" in 1825; nor could
the "Roaring Lion," though it was grown by many persons in many places,
gain the supreme triumph achieved in 1852 by the "London" Gooseberry.