THE BEECH. 73 



Elm or Walnut for purposes where durability is re- 

 quisite, it is yet much used for household furniture, 

 and instruments of husbandry, and, when kept under 

 water, is little inferior in ship-building to the Elm 

 itself. The Beech will grow in the most stony and 

 barren soils ; and as a shelter in exposed situations 

 it is particularly desirable, on account of retaining 

 its glittering leaves till the very end of autumn, and 

 indeed many of them throughout the winter ; their 

 delicate green gradually changing to modest brown, 

 then to glowing orange, and latest to the more ap- 

 propriate red. In the spring its foliage, feathering 

 almost to the ground, is exquisitely beautiful ; and 

 its fantastic roots, immortalised by Gray, in his cele- 

 brated Elegy, are frequently covered with wild 

 flowers. " About the end of September, when the 

 leaf begins to change, it forms a happy contrast 

 with the Oak whose foliage is yet verdant, and we 

 shall find the finest opposition of tint which the 

 forest can furnish, arise from the union of the oak 

 and the beech." Swine, deer, and the smaller qua- 

 drupeds, tenants of the hollow trees, such as the 

 squirrel, mouse, and dormouse, greedily fatten upon 

 its mast, which is likewise capable of being con- 

 verted into bread and oil for the human race ; its 

 leaves afford the most agreeable matrasses, conti- 

 nuing sweet and tender for seven or eight years 

 together, and are eulogised by Evelyn, from his own 

 experience, for their refreshing softness. It must, 



