21 



not have been growing in sufficient quantity, in 

 olden times, to have supplied so much timber 

 for building purposes. Our earliest writers tell 

 us that in their time the chesnut was by no means 

 of common occurence, nor widely distributed. 

 In an old traft, entitled " An Old Thrift Newly 

 Revived," published in 1612, the writer recom- 

 mends planting the chesnut, "as a kind of timber 

 ' tree, of which few grow in England, which not 

 ' only produces large and good timber, but good 

 ' fruit that poor people in time of dearth may 

 ' with a small quantity of oats or barle}' make 

 ' bread of," and "when you first begin to plant 

 ' it," he added, " it will grow more in one year 

 ' than an oak will do in two." 



The general opinion is that the chesnut is 

 not indigenous to Great Britain, but that it was 

 introduced at a very early period, probably by the 

 Romans, on account of its edible nuts. Being 

 a tree with so much to commend it, it could 

 hardly fail to stay with us. It is said to have 

 been brought to Europe by the Greeks, from Asia 

 Minor, about 500 b.c. 



