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Dear Jim, Certainly we are talking of an adventure that began on 2nd August 1100, but we are not to imagine a field of Algonquian *askutasquash* . The name 'pumpkin', ws taken by British settlers *to* the new world and used for the squashes they found there, which are so clearly rough Yankee attempts at melons. So, as you suggest, the questions are: Would there have been a field of melons in Sussex? Would Sir Richard have used the word 'pumpkin' to describe them? For the first, there seems little problem, as long as we are not imaginimng a field of *sweet* melons, which would involve time travel over five hundred years. As you have found, the *pepon (also as peponia, pepones and peponas)* seems to have been a member of the *Cucumis melo *grouping, grown as a vegetable (like a ripe cucumber or courgette), and is certainly mentioned in such works as Simeon Seth's *Syntagma de alimentorum facultatibus* *, * which dates to the late 11th century. A Kipling reader will recognise the suspicion that Kipling would have enjoyed finding reference to such crops in Norman England, and would then certainly have included a passing reference (in a way which has annoyed some critics of his 'knowingness'). Hence, I suspect that, perhaps somewhere in the annals of the Sussex Archaeological Society (he was a member) there may be reference to *pumpkins. * This does not, of course, prevent that 'jarring' feeling. We do have some of the bound volumes of material from the S.A.S, but a quick scan of the indices around the right time brought no joy! So, whether to put the use of the word *pumpkin* alongside 'thirty thousand horses' as a simple error, or to set out to prove that this was a clever reference to a little-known fact, is up to you. I do agree that there should be some reference in the Reader's Guide, but I defer to John Radcliffe.. All good wishes, and thank you for such an interesting pointer. John John Walker Honorary Librarian The Kipling Society [image: Mailtrack] <https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality5&> Sender notified by Mailtrack <https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality5&> 28/02/19, 19:14:57 ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the RUDYARD-KIPLING list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=RUDYARD-KIPLING&A=1