151 THE BEECH. 



Aii interesting fact recorded by Evelyn 1 would tend to 

 show that many of our natural Beech woods stand where 

 Oaks originally grew : " That which I would observe to 

 you from the wood at Wooton is, that where goodly Oaks 

 grew, and were cut down by my grandfather almost a 

 hundred years since, is now altogether Beech ; and where 

 my brother has extirpated the Beech, there rises Birch. 

 Under the Beech spring up innumerable Hollies, which 

 growing thick and close together in one of the woods next 

 the meadow, is a mretum' 2 all the year long, which is a 

 very beautiful sight when the leaves of the taller trees are 

 fallen." Strutt also observes that the Beech is of that 

 encroaching and dominant nature, that a wood which may 

 have been originally in equal proportions of Oak and 

 Beech, will in course of time become entirely Beeches. 



The leaves of the Beech may be applied to a very useful 

 purpose, even after they have ceased to afford their 

 summer's shelter. Evelyn says, that, " being gathered 

 about the fall, and somewhat before they are much frost- 

 bitten, they afford the best and easiest mattresses in the 

 world to lay under our quilts instead of straw ; because, 

 besides their tenderness and loose lying together, they 

 continue sweet for seven or eight years, long before which 

 time straw becomes musty and hard. They are often thus 

 used by divers persons in Dauphine : and in Switzerland 

 I have sometimes lain on them to my great refreshment." 

 Modern travellers state that in those countries they are 

 still applied to the same purpose. 



The nuts of the Beech are rarely used in England 

 except for fattening swine and poultry 7 ; but in France 

 an excellent oil is manufactured from them, which is 

 extensively employed both for culinary purposes and for 

 burning ; in Silesia it is used by the country people 

 instead of butter. A similar application of Beech mast 

 has been projected in England, but appears never to have 

 been carried into effect. A certain speculator in the reign 

 1 Letter in Aubrey's Surrey. - A leafy wood. 



