THE CHESTNUT. 185 



certainly do not in most cases) belong to this tree at all. 

 On the whole, its value appears to have been much over- 

 rated, for, omitting the uncertain evidence afforded by 

 ancient specimens, recent timber possesses few valuable 

 properties, at least for the purposes for which it was re- 

 commended by the earlier writers. They, finding what 

 they believed to be Chestnut-timber occurring in buildings 

 of unquestionable antiquity, naturally concluded that its 

 value for strength and durability recommended it to the 

 earlier builders, and further assumed, that, owing to the 

 estimation in which it was held, it had become rare. 

 Thus Hartlib, who wrote before the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century, says : " In divers places in Kent, as in and 

 about Gravesend, in the country and elsewhere, many 

 prime timbers of their old barns and houses are of Chest- 

 nut-wood, and yet there is now scarce a Chestnut-tree 

 within twenty miles of the place, and the people altogether 

 ignorant of such trees." And Evelyn, falling into the 

 same error with regard to the timber of which one of his 

 barns was made, assumes that Chestnut-forests formerly 

 stood in the vicinity of London, and quotes as confirmation 

 of his surmise the passage from Fitz-Stephen cited above, 

 though that author makes no allusion to the tree. 



The French naturalist, Buffon, was the first who directed 

 attention to the strong resemblance borne by the timber 

 of the Durmast Oak (Quercus sessiliflora) to that of the 

 Chestnut in its best condition, both almost entirely 

 wanting the silver plates which characterise the timber of 

 the common Oak (Quercus ped.uncv.lata). The truth of 

 this remark was subsequently confirmed by the discoveries 

 of Fougeroux and Daubenton in 1780, and it is now an 

 ascertained fact that the roof of Westminster Hall and 

 other ancient buildings, formerly supposed to consist of 

 Chestnut, is constructed of Durmast (or, as Lindley would 

 have it called, English) Oak. The fact is now ascertained 

 to be, that Chestnut-timber, though admirably adapted in 

 its young state for many purposes to which Oak is applied, 



