DESCEIPTIVE ENUMEEATION 01^" TREES. 85 



existence, growing near wliat was once an old stable on 

 Lord Mount Edgcumbe's estate. Tbese trees are believed 

 to be upwards of tbree hundred years old ! — Ed. 



It is said, indeed, that this tree was once very 

 common in England, and tliat beams of it are 

 often seen, at this day, in churches and old 

 houses. In the belfry particularly of the church 

 at Sutton, near Mitcham, in Surrey, I have seen 

 beams which are like Oak, yet plainly appear to 

 be of a different kind of timber, and are supposed 

 to be Chestnut. I have often heard also, that the 

 timber of the old houses of London was of 

 Chestnut. Whether this ti-ee was ever indi- 

 genous to this country seems to be matter of 

 speculation. As its timber is said to be service- 

 able, and as its fruit, though rarely of perfect 

 growth in this climate, might however be of some 

 use, we are at a loss to conceive, if it had once 

 gotten footing amongst us, how it should ever be, 

 as it now is, almost totally exterminated. Some 

 have endeavoured to account for this, by showing 

 that it is not so good a timber tree as is supposed, 

 for it decays at the heart, and will continue decay- 

 ing, till it become merely a shell, and for this 



