Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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A pleasure-garden at Rotherhithe or Redriffe accessed by the Cherry Garden Stairs still in 1746 in the lower right corner of this map: http://www.motco.com/map/81002/SeriesSearchPlatesFullb.asp?mode=query&artist=384&other=372&x=11&y=11
Cherry Garden Pier south of The Pool on the Thames at the left side of this 2003 map is where Cherry Garden Stairs were in Stuart times. http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=535750&y=179250&z=2&sv=535750,179250&st=OSGrid&lu=N&tl=~&ar=y&bi=~&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf
“A [1914] view of Platform Wharf and Cherry Garden Pier….In Stuart times Rotherhithe was famous for the Cherry Gardens, a recreational area where Londoners often went to relax on Saturday afternoons. Samuel Pepys records visiting the area to buy cherries for his wife in his famous diary. While the Cherry Gardens are gone, a recent initiative has seen cherry trees replanted in the area.” http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.1392/Platform-Wharf-and-Cherry-Garden-Pier.html
Cherry OED: Pliney mentions them, a village [1576 Cherry Hinton] be named after them games be played with the pips. Girls be likened to have lips cherried, a song in 1648 by
[ HERRICK Hesper., Cherrie-ripe (1869) 17 Cherrie-ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry, Full and faire ones; come and buy.][oed philched or scrumpped]
used for excuse for healthy look;
1633 Gerarde’s Herbal II. lxxxii. 391 [It] maketh young wenches to look faire and *cherrie like. {OED}
see ref cherries
http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1661/06/13/
note june be cherrie time for all sorts of games.
Including Bob cherry
Samuel Pepys diary’s entry predates the OED Ref,
showing there be many things existed for long periods of times before be deemed worthy of noting, especially childish events.
OED:4. Comb., as bob-a-cherry transf. attrib. (cf. bob-cherry); bob-apple, a game in which children bob for apples, either floating in water, or suspended; bob-cherry, a game in which the player tries to catch with his teeth a cherry suspended at the end of a string; bob-chin, one who bobs his chin; bob-fly, in angling, a second artificial fly that bobs on the surface of the water, to indicate the position of the end-fly; bob-up attrib., that bobs up; bob-wood, a bob or float used with a harpoon.
1681 Reply Mischief of Imposit. 2 To see their Children play at *Bob-apple.
1614 B. JONSON Barth. Fair, Keepe it during the Fayre, *Bobchin.
1697 W. DAMPIER New Voy. (1699) I. 35 At the other end of his staff [for a Harpoon] there is a light piece of wood called *Bob~wood, with a hole in it, through which the small end of the staff comes.
1899 T. S. MOORE Vinedresser, etc. 19 ‘Kisses sadly blown across the sea..*Bob-a-cherry kisses ‘neath a tree{em}’O, give me one.’