CHAP. CV 



coryi.a'ck.e. co'rylus. 



202S 



cabinets, tea-chests, &c. The great use of the hazel, however, is for under- 

 growth. Being extremely tough and flexible, the root shoots are used for 

 making crates, hurdles, hoops, wattles, walkingsticks, fishing-rods, whip 

 handles, ties for faggots, springes to catch birds, and for fastening down the 

 thatch, and for withs and bands for general purposes. A strong fence is made 

 by driving stakes into the ground, and wattling the space between them with 

 hazel rods. Evelyn tells us that out-houses, and even cottages, were some- 

 times made in this manner. In the county of Durham, particularly in the 

 Vale of Derwent, hazel coppices are grown extensively for what are called 

 corf rods, and hoops for coopers. The corf rods are from i in. to f in. in 

 diameter, and are used for making the baskets called corves, employed for 

 drawing coals out of the pits. {Bailey's Survey of Durham, p. 187.) It is much 

 grown, in Staffordshire, for crates for the potters ; but, generally speaking, 

 (though, if left a sufficient time, it will afford poles 20 ft. in length), it is found 

 so inferior to other undergrowths, that Farey, in his excellent Derbyshire Re- 

 port, advises the grubbing of it up, and replacing it with ash and oak. He 

 also objects to it for hedgerows, on account of the temptation it offers to boys 

 to break the hedges, in order to get at the nuts ; and because the leaves and 

 young shoots are said to be injurious to cattle if eaten by them, and to pro- 

 duce the disease called the red water. {Gen. View, &c., vol. ii. p. 91.) Hazel 

 rods, cut as nearly as possible of the same size, and varnished, form an admi- 

 rable material for constructiuir rustic garden seats, like that shown in/g. 19-14., 



and flower-baskets (Jig. 1945.). An agreeable vai'iety may be produced by 

 using the rods alternately peeled, and with their bark on ; or by mixing them 

 with rods of some other kind of wood. Unpeeled hazel rods are, however, 

 both handsomer and more durable than similar rods of any other kind of tree ; 

 and a variety may be produced in them by choosing them with bark of dif- 

 ferent shades ; or even staining them with a decoction of logwood, or other 

 dye, and then arranging them in a pattern, as shown in the arbour ^g. 1946. 

 Mr. Matthews, a carpenter residing at Frimley in Berkshire, has carried this 

 idea still further, and, by an ingenious arrangement of different-coloured hazel 

 rods, he produces a complete landscape, which, seen at a little distance, has a 

 very striking eftect. (See Gard. Mag., vol. ix. p. G78.) Faggots of hazel are 

 in great demand for heating ovens ; and the charcoal, which is very light, is 



