56 History of the English Landed Interest. 



flanks of his woodlands. He considered no tree too old for trans- 

 plantation, provided it was carefully and scientifically treated, 

 and he relates numerous almost incredible instances where 

 stately avenues had been formed out of ready grown materials.- 



He was intimate with all ordinary and extraordinary uses 

 to which the constituents of a tree could be put, and he found 

 either in its fruit, blossom, leaf, or wood, a panacea for almost 

 all the woes and wants of human nature. He would relate to 

 the hungry man how Chios sustained a memorable siege by 

 making bread out of mast ; and to the weary one how, by 

 collecting the leaves of the beech, he could make the best and 

 easiest of mattresses. He was able to form out of the " dotard 

 parts of the ash tree " both a cosmetic for the gallant, and a 

 sweet and fitting fuel for his lady-love's bedroom fire. He 

 could cure the rider's brokenwinded steed with the fruit of the 

 horse-chestnut, and out of that of the Spanish variety it was 

 possible for him to supply the peasant with a wholesome substi- 

 tute for beans, to eat with his rusty bacon. Moreover, with a 

 decoction from its rind he could turn hair golden, and with an 

 electuary of its flowers manufacture a preventive of internal 

 hemorrhage. If some farmer asked him where he might get 

 the best case for his cider-mill, he would tell him to go and 

 look in the woods for the rough-grained body of a stubbed 

 oak. Did a friend want clap-boards with which to wainscot 

 his dining-hall, Evelyn could point out the tree where the 

 most curious veining was likely to be found. He could show 

 the scurvy-stricken sailor how, by chewing beech leaves, he 

 might ease his diseased gums ; and he could search out for the 

 anxious mother of a ruptured child, some storm-riven ash, 

 and teach her how, by passing the tiny patient through it, she 

 might effect a cure. 



In fact, Evelyn omitted no argument whatsoever which 

 might encourage his countrymen to practise arboriculture. 

 He appealed to their charitable feelings by demonstrating how 

 they might benefit the poor in planting fruit and Ibrest trees 

 upon commons and waste lands. He appealed to their artistic 

 senses when he besought "Noble Persons to adorn their goodly 

 ^ Evelyn on Forest 'Trees, Bk. I. cb. iii. p. 33. 



