178 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



it, with an oven, in which, according to the' custom of I he 

 country, they dried chestnuts, filberts, and other fruits, 

 which they wished to preserve for winter use ; using as 

 fuel, when they could find no other, pieces cut with a 

 hatchet from the interior of the tree. In Brydone's time, 

 in 1770, this tree measured two hundred and four feet in 

 circumference. He says it had the appearance of five 

 distinct trees ; but he was assured that the space was once 

 filled with solid timber, and there was no bark on the 

 inside. This circumstance of an old trunk, hollow in the 

 interior, becoming separated so as to have the appearance 

 of being the remains of several distinct trees, is frequently 

 met with in the case of very old mulberry trees in Great 

 Britain, and olive trees in Italy. Kircher, about a century 

 before Brydone, affirms that an entire flock of sheep might 

 be inclosed within the Etna chestnut, as in a fold.* (Ar- 

 boretum Brit. p. 1988.) 



* One of the most celebrated Chestnut trees on record, is that called the 

 Tortworth Chestnut, in England. In 1772, Lord Ducie, the owner, had a 

 portrait of it taken, which was accompanied by the following description : 

 " The east view of the ancient Chestnut tree at Tortworth, in the county of 

 Gloucester, which measures nineteen yards in circumference, and is mentioned 

 by Sir Robert Aikins in his history of that county, as a famous tree in King 

 John's reign : and by Mr. Evelyn in his Sylva, to have been so remarkable in 

 the reign of King Stephen, 1135, as then to be called the great Chestnut of 

 Tortworth ; from which it may reasonably be presumed to have been standing 

 before the Conquest, 1066." This tree is still standing. 



On the estate of Marshall S. Eice, Esq., at Newton Centre, is a venerable, 

 though still vigorous and beautiful chestnut tree, the dimensions of which are 

 believed to exceed any tree of the same species in New England. In proof of 

 this, we are informed that a correspondence has recently been going on, through 

 the medium of one of our agricultural papers, between the owner of the above 

 tree, and several gcntlehien in this r /id other States, none of whom have shown 

 figures exceeding the following : size of the " Eice Tree" circumference at 

 base of trunk, 24 3-10 feet; height, 76 feet: spread of limbs, 93 feet. This 

 tree is very prolific, and has never been known to fail of bearing a largo crop 

 of nuts. About five feet from the ground, the trunk divides into two well- 

 formed shafts, which run up to the height of thirty feet, without a branch. 

 H. W. S. 



