84 gilp;n's fokest , sceneey. 



graces the landscapes of Salvator Rosa. In tlie 

 mountains of Calabria, where Salvator painted, tlie 

 Chestnut flourished. There he studied it in all its 

 forms, breaking and disposing it in a thousand 

 beautiful shapes, as the exigencies of his composi- 

 tion required. I have heard, indeed, ,tliat it is 

 naturally brittle, and liable to be shattered by 

 ■winds, which might be one reason for Salvator's 

 attachment to it. But although I have many 

 times seen the Chestnut in England, old enough to 

 be in a fruit-bearing state, yet I have seldom seen 

 it in a state of full picturesque maturity. The 

 best I have seen, stand on the banks of the 

 Tamar, in Cornwall, at an old house, belonging to 

 the Edgcumbe family. I have heard also that at 

 Beechworth Castle, in Surrey, there are not fewer 

 than seventy or eighty Chestnuts, measuring from 

 twelve to eighteen or twenty feet in girth, and 

 some of them of very picturesque form ; but I saw 

 them only at a distance. In Kent also the Chestnut 

 is frequently found. 



Some of the old Chestnuts referred to by Gilpin as 

 standing on the banks of the Tamar have disappeared ; 

 but we have learnt^ on inquiry, that two of them are still in 



