VOL. LXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. IIS 



any account of, perhaps in Europe." And the following description of both, 

 was published about 12 or 13 years ago; " At the seat of the Lord Ducie, at 

 Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, there is now growing an English chestnut, which 

 measures 5 1 feet about, at the height of 6 feet above the ground. This tree 

 divides itself, at the crown, into 3 limbs, one of which measures 28 feet and^ 

 half in the girt, and 5 feet above the crown of the tree. The soil is a soft clay, 

 somewhat loomy; the situation is the n. w. side of a hill; this tree was stiled, 

 in King John's time, the great and old chestnut tree at Torteworth; so it is 

 supposed to be now above one thousand years old. 



" There is another stately chestnut, but little inferior to that at Torteworth, in 

 Writtle park, 3 miles to the left of Ingatestone, in Essex. The late Lord Petre 

 measured this tree, and found it 45 feet girth, 5 feet from the ground; this vast 

 trunk supports a lofty head, which, at a distance, affords a noble prospect, and 

 well deserves to be surveyed by all that admire such wonderful productions." 

 At Little Wymondley, near Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, is an old decayed chestnut 

 tree, the trunk whereof (measured within these 2 years) was found to be 42 feet 

 circumference in one part, and 48 feet in another, as I am credibly informed. And, 

 to give additional force to an argument which is already decisive of itself, we 

 may observe, that in the New Forest, there are very many chestnuts irregularly 

 scattered among the oaks and other trees; and now to be seen in the road from 

 Limington to Southampton. 



In this great abundance of chestnut trees formerly among us, we need not 

 wonder that chestnut timber was frequently used in old houses, preferably to 

 oak; it was then the timber most esteemed by our joiners and carpenters. And, 

 though very lasting, yet it has been justly discredited, in these latter ages, for 

 houses, because, when it begins to decay, the consumption commences at the 

 core, and the heart is the first destroyed. And we can produce some proofs, 

 additional to the many that have been formerly produced, of chestnut timber 

 actually employed in buildings. " The old houses in the city of Gloucester, 

 (as the Reverend Mr. Crawley informs me that he has often been assured) are 

 constructed of chestnut, derived assuredly from the chestnut trees in the forest of 

 Dean." In many of the oldest houses at Feversham is much genuine chestnut, 

 as well as oak, employed. In the nunnery of Davington, near Feversham, (now 

 entire) the timber consists of oak intermingled with chestnut. And the great 

 chestnut beam which supported the leads of the church tower at Feversham, 

 when it was lately taken down, was found rotted for many feet at the extremity; 

 and had, as it were, a mere shell of sound timber remaining about it. 



Thus have I endeavoured, with all the respect due to genius and truth, to 

 point out some of the mistakes into which, I apprehend, Mr. Barrington has 

 fallen. I might have dwelt more largely on the antiquarian part of my subject; 



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