BEECH. 59 



The viper has ne'er been known to sting, 

 Or the nightingale e'er heard to sing. 



The shade of the beech-tree is very injurious to most 

 sorts of plants that grow near it, but is generally believed 

 to be very salubrious to human bodies. The leaves of 

 the beech are collected in the autumn, to fill mattresses, 

 instead of flock or straw, as they remain sweet, and con- 

 tinue soft, for many years. Thus Juvenal observes, 



-Silva domuSy cubiliafrondes. 



The wood 's a house, the leaves a bed. 



To chew beech-leaves is accounted good for the gums 

 and teeth. The Romans used beech-leaves and honey 

 to restore the growth of hair, which had fallen off in 

 sickness. 



Mr. Arthur Young, in his " Travels in France, speaks of a 

 Beech at Chantilly about seventeen miles from Paris, which 

 he says " is straight as an arrow, and not less than eighty 

 or ninety feet high ; forty feet to the first branch, and 

 four yards in diameter at five feet from the ground." 



In the " Extraits et Notices des MSS., #c." Tome 3. 

 p. 300, it is stated that on Ascension Eve, the curate of 

 Douremy, on the borders of Lorraine, usually performed 

 a religious ceremony under a beech called the Tree 

 of the Fairies, for the express purpose of keeping the 

 fairies at a distance. It was under this tree that the 

 unfortunate heroine Joan of Arc paid homage to those 

 imaginary creatures, according to her absurd accusers. 



One charge against the Maid of Orleans (when tried in 

 1431 for witchcraft and heresy) was her declaration, that 

 Saint Margaret and Saint Catharine had revealed them- 

 selves and spoken to her near the great tree, which, as 

 was commonly reported, the fairies frequented. Joan ac- 

 knowledged that she had gone with other girls, who 

 amused themselves innocently singing and dancing near 



