THE CHESTNUT. 171 



as does yet appear : I had once a very large barn near the 

 city framed entirely of this timber ; and certainly the 

 trees grew not far off, probably in some woods near the 

 town ; for in that description of London written by Fitz- 

 Stephen, in the reign of Henry II., he speaks of a very 

 noble and large forest which grew on the boreal part of 

 it : ' Nigh to London,' says he, * extends a huge forest, 

 the woody resort of wild beasts, a hiding place for deer, 

 boars, and wild bulls,' 1 &c. A very goodly thing it seems, 

 and as well stored with all sorts of good timber as with 

 venison and all kinds of chase ; and yet some will not 

 allow the Chestnut to be a free-born of this island, but 

 of that I make little doubt." 



Dr. Ducarel, in his Anglo-Norman Antiquities, observes, 

 that " many of the old houses in Normandy when pulled 

 down are found to have a great deal of Chestnut timber 

 about them. As there are not any forests of 'Chestnut- 

 trees in Normandy, the inhabitants have a tradition that 

 this timber was brought from England ; and there are 

 some circumstances which, when rightly considered, will 

 add strength to this tradition ; for many of the old houses 

 in England are found to contain a great deal of this tim- 

 ber ; several of the houses in Old Palace Yard, West- 

 minster, and in that neighbourhood, which were taken 

 down in order to build Parliament and Bridge Streets, 

 appeared to have been built with Chestnut." 



Hasted, who contributed to the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions a letter confirmatory of Ducarel's views, says : 

 " The ancient Norman buildings are mostly of this wood, 

 which in all probability was fetched home from this 

 country ; most of the stone wherewith our monasteries 

 and buildings of such sort were erected came from Nor- 

 mandy. This seems to have been a mutual traffick for 

 some centuries between the two countries." 



Sir Thomas Dick Lauder mentions, that " the roof of 



1 " Proxime patet foresta ingens, saltus nemorosi ferarum, latebrae 

 cervorum, damarum, aprorum, et tauromm sylvestriimi." 



I 2 ' 



