86 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



fine chesnut-trees. It is therefore evident that chesnut 

 timber has been long known in this country ; but we are 

 induced to believe that it was one of the fruits which was 

 introduced by the Romans to this island, who, having been 

 masters of the country for nearly four hundred years, and 

 being much attached to horticultural pursuits, we may 

 naturally conclude, would not fail to transport hither 

 their hardier kinds of fruits, and particularly those which 

 were used as a substitute for bread. 



Chesnuts were certainly considered as a proper food 

 for man by Lord Bacon, who, in his " Essay on Planta- 

 tions," says, " In a country of plantation, first look 

 about what kind of victual the country yields of itself to 

 hand ; as chesnuts, walnuts, pine-apples, olives, dates, &c. 

 &c." Chesnuts are the usual, and in some places almost 

 the only food of the common people, in the Apennine 

 mountains of Italy, in Savoy, and some parts of the south 

 of France ; not only boiled and roasted, but also in pud- 

 dings, cakes, and bread. They afford great part of the 

 food of the peasants in the mountains of Madeira. M. 

 Valmont Bomare says, the inhabitants of Perigord and 

 Limousin and the mountains of Cvennes make great use 

 of these nuts for bread, which is thought to give them a 

 swarthy complexion : they are also said to be flatulent and 

 hard of digestion ; yet there are instances, in Italy, of 

 men's living to ninety or one hundred years of age, who 

 have fed wholly on chesnuts. Roasted chesnuts make 

 a good substitute for malt in making beer. 



Chesnuts stewed with cream make a much-admired 

 dish, and many families prefer them to all other stuffings 

 for turkeys : they make an excellent soup ; and we have 

 no doubt that chesnuts might be advantageously used 

 in cooking, so as to make many agreeable and wholesome 

 dishes. The author has had them stewed and brought to 

 table with salt fish, when they have been much admired ; 



