CHESVAN. 



CHICORY. 



than for Ixauw or pUnU, u it u lUblc to become rent with fissures. 

 It U used in France for making wine-casks ; and for many purposes 

 where most other woods would decay, chestnut timber is fuuud very 

 desirable. 



The Ilonc-CkttlntU has alao iu numerous uses. The fruit U eaten 

 by niml : the meal U used in tome plaoei to whiten flaxen cloth ; in 

 other*, to strengthen bookbinder*' paste ; and in France attempts have 

 been made to produce sugar and spirit from it. The timber is used for 

 flooring, cart-linings, sabots, packing-oases, and water-pipes ; on being 

 burned, it yields good charcoal and potash. The bark is used in tanning, 

 in ilyeing, and as a drug. 



From 00,000 to 80,000 bushels of Spanish chestnuts (as the fmit of 

 the sweet chestnut U called) are annually imported into this country, 

 mostly (or sale at Covcut Garden Market. 



CHESVAN or CHESHVAN, JjtfO. is the abbreviated name of the 

 second month in the Jewish year, now usually employed instead of the 

 proper term Marchesvan. The Jews brlieve, or pretend, that the full 

 word implies " Bitter Chesvan," and that the epithet " bitter," mar, 

 was added to the name, because no festival day occurs in the month ! 

 They leave it out in common parlance accordingly. [BuL; MABCHESVAX.] 



CHEVAUX DE FRIZE, beams of wood or cylinders of iron, from 

 six to nine feet in length, and pierced by iron rods or wooden pickets 

 six feet long, which are pointed at each end and shod with iron ; the 

 pickets are placed six inches asunder, and pass through two opposite 

 faces of the beam in directions alternately at right angles to each other, 

 the cheval resting on the ground at the lower extremities of the 

 pickets. A series of these, disposed in lines and connected together by 

 rhains, are placed in the ditch, on the beruie, at the entrances or behind 

 the glacis of a field fort ; or on the breach made in the rampart of a 

 fortress, in order to impede the enemy at the time of making nn 

 attack. The chevaux de frize made for the British service consist of 

 hollow cylinders of iron in six feet lengths, sufficiently large iu 

 diameter to contain the iron rods or pickets when removed, for the 

 purpose of [locking for transport, from their positions in the holes 

 made at right angles to one another in the cylinder, and into which 

 they are fixed by keying or turning half round, after a projection on 

 their surface has passed through a corresponding indent in the hole in 

 the cylinder. 



i 'hi-vauz de frize, on account of their portability and the facility 

 with which they can be put together or token to pieces, were much 

 esteemed formerly, and were employed in the open field as a protection 

 against charges of cavalry; but they are now seldom used for this 

 purpose, being easily deranged by the enemy's artillery. 



When Badajos was besieged in 1812, chevaux de frize, formed by 

 sword-blades fixed in beams of wood, were planted by the defenders 

 on the breaches in the Trinidad bastion and in the adjoining curtain, 

 where they proved a fatal obstacle to the troops engaged in the 

 memorable assault on that fortress. 



i : 1 1 E VY CHACE, the name of an old English ballad, founded upon 

 the history of a hunting encounter which took place in 1388 at Atter- 

 buni, upon the south of the Cheviot Hills, between the martial families 

 f I'.-rcy and Douglas. The older version of this ballad was first printed 

 by Ileame, from a manuscript in tho Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, 

 and afterwards by Bishop Percy iu the ' Heliques of Ancient English 

 Poetry. 1 It begins, 



"The Pen* owt of Xorthombfrlnnde." 



According to a communication made by tho Rev. J. J. Conybeare to 

 the editors of the ' British Bibliographer,' there is now little doubt 

 that the author of this ballad was one Richard Sheale, who dwelt at 

 Tamworth, whom Percy and Ritson both agreed to consider as the 

 transcriber only of the Ashmolean copy. The style of this ballad is 

 rugged and uncouth, and it is written in the very coarsest and broadest 

 northern dialect. There seems the best reason for believing that its 

 composition may be dated about or soon after 1640. 



The more modern ballad of Chevy Choce, that of which Addison 

 criticised the beauties in the ' Spectator ' (Nos. 70, 74), begins, 



" God proipcr long our noble king." 



Bishop Percy ascribes this version to the time of Queen Elizabeth, and 

 it was probably late in her reign when it was written, or Sir Philip 

 Sydney would have had no occasion to lament that the ballad of Chevy 

 Chace, in his time, was so "evil-apparelled in the rugged garb of 

 antiquity." 



y has printed both ballad* iu his ' Reliques.' 



< HIAROSCU'ROisabranch of painting, the object of which is to 

 combine and arrange the light and dark parts of a picture to the best 

 advantage. It has reference to the lights and shadows of the picture 

 as a whole, however, anil not to the mere natural lights and shadows of 

 the several objects in other word*. it relates to what may be called 

 the composition of light and shadow. 



Tin' t?rm chiaroscuro is derived fn>m two Italian words, r/i><(>'", light, 

 and wrn, dark, and includes the treatment of bright and dark colours 

 . a well ,-w simple light .-ind lOm-le. It is jiy chiaroscuro that 

 n-lii-f and depth, and what is ter firl of a picture, are pio- 



ihir.'.l ; l,y a jnilii iitun contract of bright colours with dark, or a 

 i<>nil'in.ition of the two, or by their gradual blending; by involving one 



has 



part of the picture in shadow, while another part stands forth in full 

 light ; or by making the light gradually die away into the shadows. 

 Leonardo da Vinci was the first who reduced the art of chiaroscuro to 

 any thing like a system. It was afterwards practically improved by 

 Correggio and by Titian, under whom it may be said to have attained 

 perfection. It gives to Rubens his richness and brilliancy, to Rem- 

 brandt his magical luminousness. It must however always remain, 

 from its nature, difficult to teach or subject to rules. To acquire 

 excellence in the use of chiaroscuro, the student should study the 

 properties of light, and the mode in which it is diffused, reflected, and 

 separated into colours. He should refer to the works of the best mas- 

 ters, and observe the means which they have employed to imitate 

 nature ; and, above all, he should constantly watch and note down the 

 effects of light and shade as exhibited in the objects around him under 

 various modifications. The most powerful effects in painting will 

 always be the nearest to nature ; and the most pleasing will be those 

 which are best selected out of the infinite variety which she presents 

 for our choice. 



CHICORY, in its botanical characteristics, is described under 

 CICIIORIVM, in NAT. HIST. Div. Considered as a material for every- 

 day use, it is a perennial plant, the whole of which is bitter and 

 aromatic. The leaves, as well as the root, have been used in medicine, 

 iu the form of a decoction, as a tonic bitter, and OH a diuretic. It is 

 frequently used as a salad, especially when blanched. The luxuriant 

 growth of the leaves of the chicory, and their speedy reproduction after 

 they have been cut, suggested the more extensive cultivation of this 

 plant as food for cattle and sheep ; but, notwithstanding its abundant 

 produce, it has not been found so much superior to other green food as 

 to make its cultivation general. 



Chicory has thence become an agricultural crop. It has a fusiform 

 root like a carrot, from the crown of which large and succulent leaves 

 spread out, with deeply-indented edges. M. CrettcS de Panuel, who 

 cultivated it near Paris, in a rich soil, produced extraordinary crops. 

 The first year he cut it only twice, but afterwards four and five times 

 in a year : it produced more green food than any other plant cultivated 

 for this purpose. Arthur Young was so struck with it that he strongly 

 recommended it to the notice of British agriculturists; and in the 

 queries sent to various parts of the country by the Board of Agriculture, 

 one was, whether chicory was cultivated in the district as green foot! 

 for cattle. Some accurate experiments on a large scale were made 

 in France at the national farm of Roinbouillet, to ascertain the value 

 of chicory compared with lucerne and other green food. The chicory 

 was declared inferior, giving a disagreeable taste to milk and butter 

 when cows are kept upon it. For sheep it is very good, and a small 

 portion mixed with their other food may probably be a preservative 

 against the rot. 



To have the roots in perfection, the seed should be sown, or rather 

 drilled, in April, like that of the carrot. If sown sooner, they are apt 

 to run to seed. The land should be rich, deep, and light. The 

 plants should be thinned out to six inches in the rows, and most 

 carefully weeded. In September the leaves should be finally gathered 

 and the roots taken up, which may be done with a common pitch-fork. 

 The best preparation of the land for chicory is grass or clover. The 

 manure should be laid on before it U ploughed up in autumn, which 

 will accelerate the decomposition of the roots. The kind should In- 

 ploughed very deep in spring, and laid light ; the surface harrowed 

 fine, and the chicory seed drilled in rows twelve inches apart, and 

 rolled. Liquid manure spread over the ground will much accelerate 

 the growth of the plants, which must be thinned out like turnips or 

 carrots to six or eight inches from plant to plant. 



Chicory is now chiefly cultivated in Belgium and Germany, for the 

 purpose of preparing from the root a powder which can be substituted 

 for coffee. The roots, when taken up in September, are cleaned by 

 scraping and washing, split where they are thickest, and cut across in 

 pieces about two or three inches long ; these pieces are dried by means 

 ofa.-low oven or a kiln. In this state it is sold to the merchants, packed 

 in bags. It is afterwards cut or chopped into small pieces, and roasted 

 exactly as coffee, ground in a mill, and packed in papers in pounds and 

 half-pounds for retail sale. 



Chicory was brought into use long before the once celebrated rootled 

 corn of Henry Hunt. This Utter was simply roasted rye; and, although 

 used in large quantity, and sweetened with much sugar, it had but a 

 flat and insipid t-wte. Chicory bears a much closer resemblance to 

 cofl'ce of middling quality. It was about the year 1808 that chicory 

 became generally known in England, when Napoleon's anti-commercial 

 policy led the nations of Europe to look around them for various sub- 

 stitutes for articles no longer obtainable with the same ease as before. 

 The Germans and the French used chicory before the English; and the 

 Germans still use it largely, often without any admixture with coffee. 

 They even, as a question of economy, use the loaves of the plant in the 

 same way. 



There has Iwen much mid and written lately about the admixture of 

 with coffee. Many persons prefer coffee which has a little 

 chicory added to it, as it is said that body, colour, and a soft pleasant 

 aroma are imparted thereby. From one to two ounces to a pound of 

 coffee U stated to be a proper proportion. It is however known that 

 this proportion is enormously increased in the shops ; for as chicory is 

 much cheaper than coffee, fraudulent dealers do not fail to avail them- 



