CHESTERTON 



1307 



CHESTNUT 



Lord Chesterfield succeeded his father, the 

 third earl, in 1726. Two events stand out 

 prominently in his political career his ap- 

 pointment as ambassador to The Hague, in 

 1728, and as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in 

 1745. Both positions he filled with ability. As 

 a member of the House of Lords he was an 

 active and bitter opponent of Walpole (see 

 WALPOLE, HORACE). Chesterfield was made 

 Secretary of State in 1746; two years later 

 he resigned from office and retired to private 

 life. 



CHES ' TERTON , GILBERT KEITH (1874- ) , 

 an English poet, essayist and novelist, one of 

 the most original and forceful of the modern 

 group of British writers. The outstanding 

 feature of his work is an extreme fondness for 

 paradox. He was educated at Saint Paul's 

 School and later attended the classes of the 

 Slade Art School. His first important publica- 

 tion, a volume of poems collected under the 

 title of The White Knight, appeared in 1900, 

 just after the outbreak of the South African 

 War. During the next three years Chesterton 

 became widely known through his brilliant 

 anti-imperialistic articles in the Speaker and 

 the London Daily News, and at the close of 

 the war he was asked by John Morley to 

 write a sketch on Browning for the English 

 Men of Letters series. His discussion of 

 Browning and one of Dickens, which appeared 

 later, are illuminating and sympathetic literary 

 criticisms. 



Chesterton's philosophy, that of a man vio- 

 lently opposed to the philosophy of the mod- 

 ern age, is strikingly set forth in such volumes 

 of essays as Heretics and Orthodoxy. His fic- 

 tion includes two collections of ingenious de- 

 tective stories, The Innocence of Father Brown 

 and The Wisdom of Father Brown, and the 

 novels Manalive and The Flying Inn. His 

 vigor and intellectual power make him a stimu- 

 lating force in literature, ar\d he is one of the 

 most influential writers in England at the 

 present time. 



CHESTNUT, ches'nut, a stately tree of orna- 

 mental and commercial value, of which there 

 are five known species, two of them American. 

 The most important American species grow 

 as high as 100 feet, thriving best on high, 

 gravelly or sandy land, or on mountain sides. 

 The largest known chestnut tree is the "Chest- 

 nut of a Hundred Horsemen" near the foot of 

 Mount Etna, which at one time is said to have 

 sheltered one hundred men on horseback. 



The chestnut tree is a joy to the eye the 



year round; in the spring appear the well- 

 shaped, glossy, dark-green leaves; then come 

 yellow, fragrant catkins, and in autumn leaves 

 of pure gold with borrowed summer sunshine. 



The chestnuts, lavish of their long-hid gold. 

 To the faint Summer, beggared now and old. 

 Pour back the sunshine hoarded 'neath her favor- 

 Ing eye. 

 LOWELL : An Indian-Summer Reverie. 



And last we find it standing "knee-deep" in 

 its own yellow leaves, and scattered all about 

 are the velvet-lined burs, turned brown with 

 frost, yielding their store of smooth, brown 

 nuts. American chestnuts have the finest 

 flavor, but those of Spain and Italy are the 

 largest, and in those countries they form a 

 staple of food among the peasants. 



Ordinarily chestnut trees bear nuts only 

 after the tenth or twelfth year, but Luther 



Protcm,l 0.7 



Water, 5.9 ~^\ /"^ Fat, 7.0 



Ash, 22 



FOOD VALUE OK CHESTNUTS 



Burbank has produced a chestnut seedling 

 which bears nuts in eighteen months. It i. 

 also a hardy seedling, and might possibly be 

 the means of restoring chestnut treat speedily 

 in the Eastern United States, where most of 

 them have been killed by a fungus blight. 



