Loveliest of Trees

Housman famously praised the cherry in bloom as ‘Loveliest of trees’, but he was mistaken.

There is no blossom more beautiful than the apple. Most delicately flushed and perfumed, it’s transience intensifies the pleasure of its appearance, signifying spring is really here, after the long cold damp winter.

And no-one hymned an English apple orchard better than William Barnes, in his Dorset dialect. 

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'Ithin the woodlands, flow'ry gleaded, 

By the woak tree's mossy moot, 

The sheenen grass bleades, timber-sheaded, 

Now do quiver under voot; 

An' birds do whissle auver head, 

An' water's bubblen in its bed, 

An' ther vor me the apple tree

Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

When leaves that leately wer a-springen

Now do feade 'ithin the copse, 

An' painted birds do hush ther zingen

Up upon the timber's tops; 

An' brown-leav'd fruit's a-turnen red, 

In cloudless zunsheen, auver head, 

Wi' fruit vor me the apple tree

Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

Let other vo'k meake money vaster

In the air o' dark-room'd towns, 

I don't dread a peevish measter; 

Though noo man do heed my frowns, 

I be free to goo abrode, 

Or teake agean my hwomeward road

To where vor me the apple tree

Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

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Home is where the orchard is. I like that.

The blossom in the picture is on my Arthur Turner apple tree now. This variety is noted for the colour and perfume of its flowers.