94 



(chesnuts to be boiled). Chesnuts were con- 

 sidered nutritive by the ancients, and good 

 for those who retched up blood. 



"Chesnuts," continues Pliny, "were much 

 improved when men began to graft them/' 



The Romans called them Castanea, after 

 a city of that name in Thessalia, from 

 whence they first procured them, and where 

 they were grown in great abundance by the 

 Grecians. 



Some authors affirm that the chesnut-tree 

 is a native of this country. Dr. Ducarel 

 maintains, in his Anglo-Norman Antiquities, 

 that it is an indigenous, or native tree of 

 this island ; for this purpose he alleges, that 

 many of our old buildings in London, and 

 other places, contain a great quantity of this 

 timber. 



The remains of very old decayed chesnut- 

 trees may be seen in the Forest of Dean, 

 Enfield Chase, and in many parts of Kent. 

 At Fortworth, in Gloucestershire, is a chesnut- 

 tree fifty-two feet round : it is proved to have 

 stood there since the year 1150, and was then 

 so remarkable, that it was called " The great 

 chcsnut of Fortworth. 3 ' It fixes the boundary 

 of a manor. Mr. Marsham states that this 

 tree is 1100 years old. 



Cheshunt, or Cheutrehunt, in Hertford- 



