172 CONVERSATIONS ON THE 



was the case with the great chestnut. It is 

 the same with willow-trees. In the hollow 

 trunk of this huge tree there was a sort of 

 house built, in which were kept refreshments 

 -of various kinds, for travellers who came to 

 look at it : this house had an oven in it for 

 roasting the nuts and for other purposes, and 

 the people who kept it used to supply them- 

 selves with fuel from the branches of the tree, 

 and they injured it terribly in this way." 



" Oh, that was very ungrateful, Uncle 

 Philip, and foolish, too ; for I suppose there 

 would be very few people to buy of them if it 

 was not for the tree, and yet they were de- 

 stroying it all the time. Is the great chestnut 

 standing yet, Uncle Philip ?" 



" I believe the ruins of it are yet to be seen ; 

 but I have heard that it is not much resorted 

 to now, and indeed there is no mention of it 

 in several books of travels to that part of the 

 world, which I have read within the last two 

 or three years. There are several other large 

 chestnuts, however, upon Mount ^Etna; 

 some of them as many as seventy-five feet 

 round ; but I have never heard of any that 

 came near the Chestnut of the Hundred 

 Horses, as the great one was called/" 1 



