The Chestnut. 255 



THE SWEET OR SPANISH CHESTNUT 



(Castanea vesca). 



THE Sweet Chestnut, called also the "Spanish" because 

 the best of the imported fruit comes from Spain, counts 

 with the world's vegetable patricians ; it is noble in aspect, 

 generous in deed, long-lived as Hope. One of the very 

 oldest trees in Britain of any description now existing is 

 a chestnut that famous one at Tortworth, Gloucester- 

 shire, which began to put forth its leaves in the Saxon 

 times, saw the Danes come and go, and the Normans 

 arrive, and which to all appearance intends to maintain, 

 for many years, the viridis senectus always so delightful to 

 contemplate alike in man and the forest monarchs. The 

 Tortworth chestnut is called by this name in a boundary 

 description of A.D. 1135. The trunk of the original tree 

 is hollow and much decayed, but around it have sprung up 

 so many stout suckers, that, like the phoenix of antiquity, 

 it may be said to have risen again out of its own ashes. 

 The circumference, at three feet from the ground, is about 

 fifty feet, or seventeen yards ; the spread of the branches, 

 either way, is eighty-six feet. Flowers still come out on 

 the upper branches. We never grow too old to partake 

 of noble enjoyments : after the same manner, it seems as 

 if not only the chestnut, but the old tree of any kind, 

 never becomes too weak to produce flowers bright as those 

 of its youth. The Tortworth chestnut is probably the first 

 tree that was ever planted in this country by man. There 



