elic of its first
floral days, preserved like the apron of the blacksmith at Persia,
when he came to the throne. The term _grossularia_ implies a
resemblance of the fruit to _grossuli_, small unripe figs.

[224] Frequently the shrub, which belongs to the same natural order
as the Currant (_Ribes_), grows wild in the hedges and thickets of
our Eastern counties, bearing then only a small, poor berry, and not
supposed to be of native origin.

In East Anglia it is named Fabe, Feap, Thape, or Theab berry,
probably by reason of a mistake which arose through an incorrect
picture. The Melon, in a well-known book of Tabernaemontanus,
was figured to look like a large gooseberry, and was headed,
_Pfebe_. And this name was supposed by some wiseacre to be that
of the gooseberry, and thus became attached to the said fruit.
Loudon thinks it signifies Feverberry, because of the cooling
properties possessed by the gooseberry, which is scarcely probable.

In Norfolk, the green, unripe fruit is called Thape, and the
schoolboys in that county well know Thape pie, made from green
Gooseberries. The French call the fruit _Groseille_, and the Scotch,
Grosert. It contains, chemically, citric acid, pectose, gum, sugar,
cellulose, albumen, mineral matter, and water. The quantity of
flesh-forming constituents is insignificant. Its pectose, under
heat, makes a capital jelly.

In this country, the Gooseberry was first cultivated at the time of the
Reformation, and it grows better in Great Britain than elsewhere,
because of the moist climate. The original fruit occurred of the hairy
sort, like Esau, as the _Uva crispa_ of Fuschius, in Henry the
Eighth's reign; and there are now red, white, and yellow cultivated
varieties of the berry.

When green and unripe, Gooseberries are employed in a sauce,
together with bechamel, and aromatic spices, this being taken with
mackerel and other rich fish, as an acid corrective condiment. Also,
from the juice of the [225] green fruit, "which cureth all
inflammations," may be concocted an excellent vinegar.

Gooseberry-fool, which comes to our tables so acceptably in early
summer, consists of the unripe fruit _foule_ (that is, crushed or
beaten up) with cream and milk. Similarly the French have a _foule
des pommes_, and a_ foule des raisins_. To "play old Gooseberry"
with another man's property is conjectured to mean smashing it up,
and reducing it, as it were, to Gooseberry-fool.

The young and tender leav