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leaving patches of different hues, feams, and 

 cracks, which are often piclurefque. 



The chefnut in maturity and perfection is a 

 noble tree j and grows not unlike the oak. Its 

 ramification is more ftraggling ; but it is eafy, 

 and its foliage loofe. This is the tree, which 

 graces the landfcapes of Salvator Rofa. In the 

 mountains of Calabria, where Salvator painted, 

 the chefnut flourifhed. There he ftudied it in 

 all its forms, breaking and difpofing it in a 

 thoufand beautiful fhapes, as the exigencies of 

 his compofition required. I have heard indeed 

 that it is naturally brittle, and liable to be 

 fhattered by winds ; which might be one 

 reafon for Salvator's attachment to it. But 

 although I have many times feen the chefnut 

 in England, old enough to be in a fruit-bearing 

 ftate ; yet I have feldom feen it in a flate of 

 full pifturefque maturity. The beft I have feen 

 ftand on the banks of the Tamer in Cornwall, 

 at an old houfe, belonging to the Edgecumbe 

 family. I have heard alfo that at Beechworth- 

 caftle, in Surry, there are not fewer than feventy 

 or eighty chefnuts, meafuring from twelve to 

 eighteen or twenty feet in girth, and fome of 



them 



