CHAP. CY. CORYLA CER, FA‘GUS. 1957 
times, consecrated to Diana, by the common consent of all the inhabitants of 
Latium, who paid their devotions to that goddess there. One of these trees 
was of such surpassing beauty, that Passienus Crispus, a celebrated orator, who 
was twice consul, and who afterwards married the Empress Agrippina, was so 
fond of it, that he not only delighted to repose beneath its shade, but fre- 
quently poured wine on the roots, and used often to embrace it.” Beechen cups 
were used by the Latin shepherds ; and this custom is frequently alluded to 
by the poets. The oldest British writers on rural affairs mention the beech 
as one of the four indigenous timber trees of England. Its timber, however, 
was considered inferior to that of the three other timber trees, viz. the oak, 
the ash, and the elm. The mast of the beech has been, from the earliest times, 
valued as food for swine; and, in some parts of Buckinghamshire, where the 
tree abounds, swine are still driven into the beech woods in autumn. About 
1721, Aaron Hill, the poet, proposed a scheme for paying off the national 
debt with the profits of the oil to be made from beech nuts; but his 
scheme fell to the ground. Other plans for making beech oil have been sug- 
gested, but always without success. Indeed, it is probable that the mast 
requires to be ripened in a warmer climate than that of Britain to make it 
produce oil in sufficient quantities for profit; as Linnzus expressly states 
that, in Sweden, scarcely any oil at all can be expressed from it. The useful- 
ness of the beech, at the time when forests were chiefly valued for the number 
of swine that they could support, together with the facility with which the 
tree is raised from seed, must ome rendered it one of the first trees propagated 
and planted by art. Accordingly, Gerard, in 1597, speaks of the excellent 
effect which the nuts had in fattening swine, deer, and pigeons ; and Par- 
kinson, writing in 1640, says that the beech is planted in parks, forests, and 
chases, to feed deer ; but, in other places, to fatten swine, “ whose fat,” he adds, 
“ will be softer than theirs that are fattened with acorns.” The beauty of this 
tree, the density of its shade, and the classical associations connected with it, 
independently altogether of the uses of its fruit, occasioned it to be early 
planted as an ornamental tree, both in Britain and on the Continent. We 
find both Evelyn and Cook recommending it for shady walks, avenues, and 
hedges; for which latter purpose, where it is desired to enclose and warm 
gardens, Boutcher observes, this tree has hardly an equal. Between 1790 and 
and 1800, some trunks of beech trees were found at a considerable depth 
below the surface, in St. Leonard’s Forest, Hampshire. They had evidently 
been squared with proper tools; and are supposed to have lain there ever 
since the time of the Romans. The beech, Dr. Walker observes, was not 
much planted in Scotland till between 1540 and 1560; and many of the trees 
then planted at Hopetoun House, Arniston, Inverary, and Newbattle, still 
exist, and are the oldest in the country. The beech was probably planted in 
Ireland about the same time that it was introduced into Scotland; and it 
attains an enormous size on the calcareous loams and the sloping sides of hills 
of that country. The first planted beeches in Ireland are believed to be those 
at Shelton Park; but the largest is in Charleville Forest. The most 
extensive planter of the beech tree in Scotland has been the Earl of Fife, 
who, in the latter half of the last century, planted many thousand beech 
trees in the county of Moray, for which he received the gold medal of 
the Society of Arts. In England, after the Revolution of 1688, when 
William III. introduced the Dutch style of gardening, the beech was much 
lanted for hedges, both for shelter in gardens and nurseries, and for form- 
ing the clipped sides of alleys in geometrical plantations. Extensive plant- 
ations of beech for timber were made, between 1784 and 1788, at Belmont in 
Staffordshire, and by the Bishop of Llandaff near Ambleside. The tree still 
continues to be planted ; but, now, more for ornamental purposes than for the 
value of either its timber or its fruit. Between 1680 and 1690, Lord Scar- 
borough, according to Mitchell, had an avenue cut through Stanstead Forest, 
in Sussex ; and within the Park, on each side of the entrance of the avenue, 
there were about 10 acres planted with beech, which, in 1827, were from 
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