348 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



ment which they afford to those pleasant tracts, for some 

 miles in circumference." 



The same excellent author, whose desire to benefit his 

 country and countrymen was only exceeded by his steady 

 perseverance in his religious duties, to make himself as 

 acceptable to his Maker as he was to his fellow-creatures, 

 writes in his Diary, " 27 July, 1655. From Boxhill I 

 walked to Mickleham (in Surrey) and saw Sir F. Stidolph's 

 seat environed with elme-trees and walnuts innumerable, 

 and of which last he told me they received a considerable 

 revenue." On the 27th September, 1658, he notes, 

 " Went to Casshalton (Surrey), full planted with walnut 

 and cherry-trees, which afford a considerable rent." And 

 on the 16th March, 1683, " I went to see S r Josiah 

 Child's prodigious cost in planting walnut-trees about his 

 seat," (where Wanstead House now stands.) 



Evelyn notices the grafting of walnut-trees in his time ; 

 and the advantage of this practice is now completely 

 established by the uniform practice in Dauphiny, Anjou, 

 the Lower Limousin, Perigord, and Swisserland, the pro- 

 duce being thus increased about ten-fold. 



Worlidge tells us in his Vinetum Britannicum, which 

 was published in 1675, that Petersfield in Hampshire was 

 celebrated for its walnuts ; he says, " There is also the 

 early walnut that ripens above a fortnight before any of 

 the other, and is of as thin a shell and pleasant a taste as 

 any of the other. This fruit I have not observed any 

 where, but at Petersfield in Hampshire. Also there is a 

 very small sort of this fruit, round, and but little bigger 

 than a filberd, growing at the same place." 



Some specimens of walnuts were exhibited at the Hor- 

 ticultural Society in 1820, of a long oval shape, with a 

 shell so very thin, that the slightest pressure of the fingers 

 crushes it. The kernel is full, white, very tender, and 

 high-flavoured ; and as it is thought to be by far the best 



