1 04 S Y L V A BOOK i 



the green-husks of walnuts, Sfc. I say, had we store 

 of this material, especially of the Virginian, we 

 should find an incredible improvement in the more 

 stable furniture of our houses, as in the first frugal 

 and better days of Rome, when 



1 Tables made here at home, those times beheld, 

 Of our own wood, for that same purpose fell'd, 

 Old walnut blown down, when the wind set east. 



Sir R. Stapylton. 



For if it had been cut in that season, it would not 

 have prov'd so sound, as we shew in our chapter of 

 felling. It is certain, that the mensa nucince, were 

 once in price even before the citrin, as Strabo notes ; 

 and nothing can be more beautiful than some planks 

 and works which I have beheld of it, especially that 

 which comes from Grenoble, of all other the most 

 beautiful and esteemed. 



3. They render most graceful avenues to our 

 countrey dwellings, and do excellently near hedge- 

 rows ; but had need be planted, at forty or fifty foot 

 interval, for they affect to spread both their roots and 

 branches. The Bergstras (which extends from Hei- 

 delberg to Darmstadt) is all planted with walnuts ; 

 for so by another ancient law, the borderers were 

 obliged to nurse up, and take care of them ; and that 

 chiefly, for their ornament and shade ; so as a man 

 may ride for many miles about that countrey under 

 a continued arbour, or close-walk ; the traveller both 

 refreshed with the fruit and the shade, which some 

 have causelesly defam'd for its ill effects on the head, 



1 Ilia domi natas, nostraque ex arbore mensas 

 Tempora viderunt : hos lignum stabat in usus, 

 Annosam si forte nucetn dejecerat Eurus. 



Juv. 1. 4. Sat. ii. 



