294 HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 



■was well known as a signal boundary to the Manor of Tortworth. 

 At the time that it was thus conspicuous for its magnitude and 

 vigour, we may reasonably suppose it to have been in its prime ; if, 

 therefore, we pay any regard to the received opinion which is applied 

 to the chestnut, equally with the oak, that it is three hundred years 

 in coming to perfection, this calculation takes U3 back to the begin- 

 ning of the reign of Egbert, in the year 800, for the commencement 

 of the existence of the Tortworth Chestnut. 



Well then may we exclaim with the poet — 



Hail, old patrician trees, so great and good ! 



The "Walnut (Juglans regia) is supposed to have 

 been introduced from Persia by the Romans ; but 

 although we can have no claim to it as a native, yet 

 it has thriven so remarkably well, as for many years 

 since to have furnished us with a large quantity of 

 a highly valuable timber. So much indeed is its 

 wood esteemed, as to have caused its use only in the 

 better kinds of cabinet-work, such as drawing-room 

 furniture, internal fittings, and where mahogany 

 would now be considered as somewhat common ; it 

 has, too, been ever esteemed as a wood for gun-stocks, 

 as it combines hardness, toughness, and an agreeable 

 colour with a great degree of lightness— being of a 

 less specific gravity than that of any other kind of 

 hard wood. 



Fowling-pieces, gentlemen's rifles, pistols, and all 

 the finer kinds of small arms, usually have stocks of 

 walnut, as its texture, colour, and the sharpness 

 with which fancy carvings can be worked, peculiarly 

 adapt it for the purpose. 



During the continental war, English walnut 

 fetched an enormous price. Selby tells us that a 



