22 



THE CHESTNUT. 



In divers places in Kent, as in and about Graves- 

 end, in the country and elsev^here, many prime 

 timbers of their old barns and houses are of Chest- 

 nut-wood, and yet there is nov^ scarce a Chestnut- 

 tree within twenty miles of the place and the peo- 

 ple altogether ignorant of such trees." And Eve- 

 lyn, falling into the same error with regard to the 

 timber of which one of his barns was made, as- 

 sumes that Chestnut-forests formerlv stood in the 

 vicinity of London, and quotes as confirmation of 

 his surmise the passage from Fitz- Stephen cited 

 above, though that author makes no allusion to 

 the tree. 



The French naturalist, Bufibn, was the first 

 who directed attention to the strong resemblance 

 borne by the timber of the Durmast Oak {Quer- 

 cus sessilijlora) to that of the Chestnut in its best 

 condition, both almost entirely wanting the silver 

 plates w^hich characterise the timber of the com- 

 mon Oak {Quercus pedunculata). The truth of 

 this remark was subsequently confirmed by the 

 discoveries of Fougeroux and Daubenton in 1780, 

 and it is now an ascertained fact that the roof of 

 Wesminster Hall and other ancient buildings, for- 

 merly supposed to consist of Chestnut, is con- 

 structed of Durmast, or, as Lindley would have 

 it called, English, Oak. The fact is now ascer- 

 tained to be, that Chestnut- timber, though admir- 

 ably adapted in its young state for many purposes 

 to which Oak is applied, such as beams, posts, and 

 fences, after a certain, and that comparatively 

 an early, age becomes what is technically called 

 shaky and so deteriorated by the separation and 

 decay of the internal layers as to be of very little 

 value. It is evident therefore that before it could 



