CHESNUT. 87 



but it is exceedingly difficult to introduce any article as 

 food that has not been established by long custom ; and 

 it is not more strange than true, that the difficulty in- 

 creases, if the object be economy. Nievhoff tells us that 

 the Chinese grow chesnuts in the province of Suchuen 

 that will melt in the mouth like sugar. We hope to 

 hear that this tree will be inquired for and brought to 

 England. 



The importation of chesnuts is very considerable both 

 from Spain and Portugal, yet we believe it is rarely if ever 

 there is a single meal made from them in this country. 

 The Catalonians have this strange religious practice : on 

 the first of November, the eve of All Souls, they run about 

 from house to house to eat chesnuts, believing that for 

 every chesnut they swallow, with proper faith and unc- 

 tion, they shall deliver a soul out of purgatory. 



As ornamental and profitable for parks, chesnut-trees 

 are exceeded by no others, which all must acknowledge 

 who have seen the picturesque and stately trees in the do- 

 mains of the Earl of Egremont at Petworth, or the fine 

 avenues in Greenwich Park. It is this tree which graces 

 the landscapes of Salvator Rosa, who painted in the 

 mountains of Calabria, where it flourishes. Its rami- 

 fications are more straggling than even those of the 

 oak, while its foliage, which is more loose and brilliant in 

 colour, is less subject to the attacks of insects, and its 

 yellow and umber tints greatly relieve the sable hue of 

 the fir and the pine, and act like a blossom to enliven 

 the month of November. The male flowers, which appear 

 in May, have for a short time a strong spermatic and dis- 

 agreeable odour; the female blossom attracts our attention 

 by the curious manner in which nature has provided for 

 the impregnation of this seed. There are generally four 

 chesnuts in each of their thorny habitations, that have a 

 small hole at the point, out of which each nut thrusts its 



