TUB SWEET^ OU SPANISH CHESTNUT. 203 



But I must cut my list short, for cveu now I am fearful lest I should 

 have given you too lengthy an article; but should you deem it worthy of 

 insertion, I may probably renew the subject at a future time; and trusting 

 that if any of your readers have supposed this an unfavourable locality for 

 their summer rambles^ they may be disabused of the notion. 



Wijcollar Cottage, Southport, Lancashire, June dth., 1851. 



THE SWEET, OR 

 SPANISH CHESTNUT. (CASTANEA VULGARIS.) 



BY J. Mc'lNTOSH, ESQ. 



The Chestnut has frequently been alluded to by our old English poets, so 

 that we shall preface what we have to say on this tree with one or two 

 quotations. First then, Herrick says — 



"Ecmcmber us in cups full crown' d, 

 And let our city health go round; 

 Quite through the young maids and the men, 

 To tlic ninth number, if not ten; 

 Until tlic fried chestnut leap 

 For joy to sec the fruits ye reap 

 From the plump chalice, and the cup 

 That tempts till it be tossed u))." 



And the good old poet Milton, says — 



"Wliile hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear, 

 And black'ning chestnuts stiu-t and crackle there." 



Fear not my readers, I am neither going to write the history, or treat upon 

 the good and bad qualities of this old inhabitant of our sea-girt Isle; but 

 merely to record two curious old trees of this species of Castanca, which are 

 now in existence, and likely to be so for many a long year to come, at Clreat 

 C'anford, in the county of Dorset. The late indefatigable J. C. Loudon, in his 

 master-piece — "The Arboretum Britannicum," — merely alludes to the existence 

 of these trees in the time of ^Grose.' We have frequently paid a visit to 

 these venerable trees, and shall thus briefly describe them. There appear 

 originally to have been five, known and handed down to the present time as 

 John o' Gaunt's Chestnuts. Now, John of Gaunt was the fourth son of King 

 Edward the Fourth, and Duke of Lancaster. Whether these trees were 

 planted before his time, or by His Grace's direction, we have no account, 

 nor shall we offer an opinion; suffice it to say, that of these five trees only 

 two remain in life. The first and finest is in front of Canford House, and 

 measures at the gi-ound thirty-three feet; at six feet high, twenty-seven feet; 

 at or about the height of six feet there are about twenty large branches, 

 springing out in an upright direction, and assuming tho character of young 

 trees. The main trunk is somewhere about seventy feet high, full of holes, 

 and almost hollow; the bole, near the ground, when we last saw it, was 



