The first recorded fruiting of the banana at Staunton was in 1828, under the careful care of the Gardener Mr. A. Scott.
In 1843, Mr Scott showed a bunch of bananas at a Meeting of the Horticultural Society of London that weighed 129lbs - that's about 54kg or eight and a half stone.
In 1847, in the Society's Journal they wrote:
‘Of the kinds that are fruited here, perhaps the Mango is the only one entitled to the character of a first-rate fruit; but others are equal, if not superior, to several of our common kinds, independently of their being the produce of species belonging to very distinct tribes of plants, and thus interest and variety is added to the dessert, which ought always to give them a strong claim on our attention, even if it should ultimately be found that but few of the more rare tropical fruits excel those usually cultivated for the table.'