S Y L V A BOOK i 



cervorum, damarum^ aprorum, & taurorum sil- 

 vestrium^ &c. A very goodly thing it seems, and as 

 well stor'd with all sorts of good timber, as with 

 venison and all kind of chase ; and yet some will not 

 allow it a free-born of this island ; but of that I 

 make little doubt. The chesnut affords the best 

 stakes and poles for palisades, pedament for vine-props 

 and hops, as I said before : Also for mill-timber and 

 water-works, or when it may lie buried ; but if water 

 touch the roots of the growing trees, it spoils both 

 fruit and timber : 'Tis likewise observed, that this 

 tree is so prevalent against cold, that where they stand, 

 they defend other plantations from the injuries of 

 the severest frosts : I am sure being planted in hedge- 

 rows, Gf circa agrorum itinera^ or for avenues to our 

 country-houses, they are a magnificent and royal 

 ornament. This timber also does well (if kept dry) 

 for columns, tables, chests, chairs, stools, bedsteads ; 

 for tubs, and wine-casks, which it preserves with the 

 leist tincture of the wood of any whatsoever : If the 

 timber be dipp'd in scalding oyl, and well pitch'd, it 

 becomes extreamly durable ; but otherwise I cannot 

 celebrate the tree for its sincerity, it being found that 

 (contrary to the oak) it will make a fair shew out- 

 wardly, when 'tis all decay'd, and rotten within ; but 

 this is in some sort recompenc'd, if it be true, that 

 the beams made of chesnut-tree have this property, 

 that being somewhat brittle, they give warning, and 

 premonish the danger by a certain crackling which 

 it makes ; so as 'tis said to have frighted those out of 

 the Baths at Antandro, whose roof was laid with this 

 material ; but which Pliny says, was of hazle, very 

 unlike it. Formerly they made consultatory staves 

 of this tree ; and the variegated rods which Jacob 



