ribstone-pippin

Updated: August 5, 2026

William Dewy otherwise grandfather William was now about seventy; yet an ardent vitality still preserved a warm and roughened bloom upon his face, which reminded gardeners of the sunny side of a ripe ribstone-pippin; though a narrow strip of forehead, that was protected from the weather by lying above the line of his hat-brim, seemed to belong to some town man, so gentlemanly was its whiteness.

Thomas Hardy - Under the Greenwood Tree, or, the Mellstock quire; a rural painting of the Dutch school