CHAP. CV. CORYLA X CE^E. FAMOUS. 1957 



times, consecrated to Diana, by the common consent of all the inhabitants of 

 Latin m, who paid their devotions to that goddess there. One of these trees 

 was of such surpassing beauty, that Passienus Crispus, a celebrated orator, who 

 was twice consul, and who afterwards married the Empress Agrippina, was so 

 fond of it, that he not only delighted to repose beneath its shade, but fre- 

 quently poured wine on the roots, and used often to embrace it.'* Beechen cups 

 were used by the Latin shepherds ; and this custom is frequently alluded to 

 by the poets. The oldest British writers on rural affairs mention the beech 

 as one of the four indigenous timber trees of England. Its timber, however, 

 was considered inferior to that of the three other timber trees, viz. the oak, 

 the ash, and the elm. The mast of the beech has been, from the earliest times, 

 valued as food for swine; and, in some parts of Buckinghamshire, where the 

 tree abounds, swine are still driven into the beech woods in autumn. About 

 1721, Aaron Hill, the poet, proposed a scheme for paying off the national 

 debt with the profits of the oil to be made from beech nuts; but his 

 scheme fell to the ground. Other plans for making beech oil have been sug- 

 gested, but always" without success. Indeed, it is probable that the mast 

 requires to be ripened in a warmer climate than that of Britain to make it 

 produce oil in sufficient quantities for profit; as Linnaeus expressly states 

 that, in Sweden, scarcely any oil at all can be expressed from it. The useful- 

 ness of the beech, at the time when forests were chiefly valued for the number 

 of swine that they could support, together with the facility with which the 

 tree is raised from seed, must have rendered it one of the first trees propagated 

 and planted by art. Accordingly, Gerard, in 1597, speaks of the excellent 

 effect which the nuts had in fattening swine, deer, and pigeons ; and Par- 

 kinson, writing in 1640, says that the beech is planted in parks, forests, and 

 chases, to feed deer; but, in other places, to fatten swine, " whose fat," he adds, 

 " will be softer than theirs that are fattened with acorns." The beauty of this 

 tree, the density of its shade, and the classical associations connected with it, 

 independently altogether of the uses of its fruit, occasioned it to be early 

 planted as an ornamental tree, both in Britain and on the Continent. We 

 find both Evelyn and Cook recommending it for shady walks, avenues, and 

 hedges ; for which latter purpose, where it is desired to enclose and warm 

 gardens, Boutcher observes, this tree has hardly an equal. Between 1790 and 

 and 1800, some trunks of beech trees were found at a considerable depth 

 below the surface, in St. Leonard's Forest, Hampshire. They had evidently 

 been squared with proper tools ; and are supposed to have lain there ever 

 since the time of the Romans. The beech, Dr. Walker observes, was not 

 much planted in Scotland till between 1540 and 1560; and many of the trees 

 then planted at Hopetoun House, Arniston, Inverary, and Newbattle, still 

 exist, and are the oldest in the country. The beech was probably planted in 

 Ireland about the same time that it was introduced into Scotland ; and it 

 attains an enormous size on the calcareous loams and the sloping sides of hills 

 of that country. The first planted beeches in Ireland are believed to be those 

 at Shelton Park ; but the largest is in Charleville Forest. The most 

 extensive planter of the beech tree in Scotland has been the Earl of Fife, 

 who, in the latter half of the last century, planted many thousand beech 

 trees in the county of Moray, for which he received the gold medal of 

 the Society of Arts. In England, after the Revolution of 1688, when 

 William III. introduced the Dutch style of gardening, the beech was much 

 planted for hedges, both for shelter in gardens and nurseries, and for form- 

 ing the clipped sides of alleys in geometrical plantations. Extensive plant- 

 ations of beech for timber were made, between 1784? and 1788, at Belmont in 

 Staffordshire, and by the Bishop of Llandaff near Ambleside. The tree still 

 continues to be planted ; but, now, more for ornamental purposes than for the 

 value of either its timber or its fruit. Between 1680 and 1690, Lord Scar- 

 borough, according to Mitchell, had an avenue cut through Stanstead Forest, 

 in Sussex ; and within the Park, on each side of the entrance of the avenue, 

 there were about 10 acres planted with beech, which, in 1827, were from 



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