OF CHESNUTS. 24^9 



Gerarde says, that in his time there were several 

 woods of Chesnuts in England, particularly one 

 near Feversham in Kent ; and Fitz-Stephen, in a 

 description of London written by him in Henry 

 the Second's time, speaks of a very noble forest 

 which grew on the North part of it. This tree 

 grows sometimes to an amazing size. Not to 

 mention those abroad, there is one at Lord 

 Ducie's at Tortworth, in the county of Gloucester, 

 which measures nineteen yards in circumference, 

 and is mentioned by Sir Robert Atkyns, in his 

 history of that county, as a famous tree in King 

 John's time ; and by Mr. Evelyn, in his Sylva, 

 book Jd, chap. 7* P* -32, fourth edition, to have 

 been so remarkable for its magnitude in the reign 

 of King Stephen, as then to be called the Great 

 Chesnut of Tortworth ; from which it may reason- 

 ably be supposed to have been standing before the 

 Conquest. Lord Ducie had a Drawing of it taken 

 and engraved in 177^« One of the prints is now 

 in my possession, and was a present from my much 

 esteemed friend, the late Captain William Locker, 

 of the Royal Navy, and Lieutenant-Governor of 

 Greenwich Hospital. * Formerly a great part of 



* At Ashted-park, near Epsom, the seat of Richard 

 Howard, Esq. there are a great many Spanish Chesnuts that 

 were sown by a gardener now living, one of which, at three 

 feet from the ground, measures seven feet in circumference, 

 and has a trunk upwards of fjfty feet high. 



Since writing the above, I have seen the old gardener, 

 Thomas Davie, (who is now 77 years old,) and have had some 

 conrersation with him. He says, that at the aee of 1.5 he 



