MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, kc. 123 



King Stephen, as then to be called the Great Chesnut of Tort- 

 worth ; from which it may reasonably be supposed to have 

 been standing before the Conquest. Lord Ducie had a draw- 

 ing of it taken and engraved in 1772. One of the prints is now 

 in my possession*. Formerly a great part of London was 

 built with chesnut and walnut-tree ; and at Sion House, the 

 seat of the Duke of Northumberland, the stables are built 

 with them, from the old monastery at that place, which was 

 taken down when the present mansion-house was built. 



The best way of propagating chesnut-trees is from seed, 

 gathered when thoroughly ripe ; v^^hich is generally about the 

 latter end of October ; but they should not be gathered till the 

 husks begin to open, and the nuts appear of a brownish co- 

 lour ; they will then drop of themselves, and should be care- 

 fully picked up in the morning ; and particularly after high 

 winds ; those v/hich are intended for eating, or for seed, 

 should be always suffered to drop of themselves ; they will be 

 found much better than those that are beaten down. If, hov/- 

 ever, the frost should set in early, you will be under the ne» 

 cessity of thrashing them down, which should be done in 

 dry day. All that fall in the husk should be thrown in heaps 

 in a shed, or other convenient place, and suffered to remain 

 three weeks, or a month, in that state, to ripen. They should 

 then be taken out of the husks, and the best picked out and 

 laid up by themselves, after being well dried, on mats, or 

 cloths, in a sunny situation. They should be laid up in the 

 fruit-room, or granary, on shelves, or on a dry floor. Re- 

 member to turn them frequently. The inferior ones will do 

 for sowing, or they may be given to pigs or turkeys, who are 

 very fond of them ; they will be found very good for fattening 

 poultry, especially turkeys. If during the winter they should 

 become damp or mouldy, they should be turned and carefully 

 wiped ; and if spread at a moderate distance from a fire, or 

 dried in an oven after the bread is drawn, and then packed 

 in boxes, or jars, with thorough dry sand, they will keep 



* At Aslited-park, near Epsom, the seat of Richai-d Howard, Esq. there 

 are a great many Spanish Chesnuis, that were sown by a gardener now living, 

 one of which, at three feet from the ground, measures seven feet in circum- 

 ference, and has a trunk upwards of fifty feet higli. 



Since writing the above, I have seen the old gardener, Thomas Davie, 

 who is now 77 years old, and have had some conversation, with him. He 

 says, that at the age of 15 he bought three shillings worth of chesnuts in 

 London on purpose to treat his fellow-servants ; but finding that they would not 

 accept of them, he sowed them in a bed in the garden at Ashted, which then 

 belonged to the Earl of Sulfolk, and afterwards planted out the young trees 

 where they now stand. These trees are, therefore, at this time, sixty-two 

 years old, from the seed. 



