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THE NATURE BOOK 



kings. There is the oak, dead now, but 

 green with ivy, under which Henry VIII. 

 is supposed to have danced with Anne 

 Boleyn ; and in the hollow of which 

 Queen Elizabeth is said to have supped. 

 Down at the landing-stage Raleigh 

 bridged the pool of Thames mud with 

 his cloak. " Masques and Musique," 

 feasts and revels for kings and courts, 

 Greenwich Fair for the people, and Green- 

 wich Observator}^ — with its chronological 

 authority, greater, one may say, than that 

 of the sun himself — for the whole world. 

 After all, however, the chief glory of a 

 park is its trees ; and of all the trees, 

 indigenous or introduced to this country, 

 the tree of Greenwich Park, the Spanish 

 Chestnut, is that best calculated to pro- 

 duce, in garden or landscape, the effect 

 of dignity ; distinguished by comparative 

 rarity, of slow but not sluggish growth, 

 of lofty and symmetrical stature, with 

 limbs well proportioned to its girth of 

 trunk, with its deeply corrugated bark, 

 set in noble spiral ridges that suggest 

 so much of strength and antiquity ; 

 and shapely saw-edged leaf of pure dark 



green, and firm, yet sensitive texture ; 

 the tree well recalls the best associations 

 of its name, the Spaniards' strength 

 and the Spaniards' sombre pride. 



The legend which connects the name 

 of Evelyn with the planting of these 

 chestnuts appears to be founded merely 

 on inference — a quite natural inference, 

 however, since he praises the chestnut 

 for " Magnificent and Royal Avenues," 

 a term peculiarly applicable to Greenwich. 



The direct reference which occurs in 

 his diary is not to the chestnuts, but to 

 the elms, which he says were planted by 

 his Majesty Charles I. in the year 1644. 



There can be little doubt that many of 

 the Spanish chestnuts are of much greater 

 antiquity than this. They probably be- 

 long to the period of the enclosure of the 

 Park (by Humphrey Duke of Gloucester), 

 circa 1430 ; whilst the great oak, " Queen 

 Elizabeth's dining room," had no doubt 

 flourished, a stately tree, upon Blackheath 

 long years before that time. 



Speaking of the fruit of the chestnuts, 

 E\^elyn says : " We give that food to our 

 swine . . . doubtless we might propa- 



THE DELL. 



