8 



THE CHESTNUT. 



an otherwise unimportant place. With respect to 

 the Chestnut-forest said to exist in Elizabeth's time 

 in the parish of Milton, Barrington, who WTote in 

 1771, says, that he expended much time and labour 

 in examining the forest, and discovered satisfac- 

 tory evidence, from the fact that the trees stood at 

 equal distances from each other and in straight lines, 

 that the trees had been originally planted. The 

 author of a tract published in 1612 was evidently 

 of opinion that the tree in question w^as not indi- 

 genous, for he recommends planting it as a kind 

 of timber tree of which few grow in England." 



With regard to the strongest evidence of all in 

 favour of the opinion that the Chestnut is a native 

 tree, that, namely, afforded by the actual existence 

 of ancient trees, and the notice of others in the 

 grant to the Monastery of Flexely ; * it may be 

 argued : that, supposing the Chestnut to have 

 been introduced by the Romans, ample time had 

 been allowed it to establish itself thoroughly, and 

 even to spread itself over the country. The Syca- 

 more, Gerard says, was, in 1597, a rare exotic," 

 yet 250 years have sufficed so thoroughly to natu- 

 ralize it, that few persons are aware that it is 

 really of foreign origin. Three times that space 

 of time may have elapsed between the introduc- 

 tion of the Chestnut and the first mention of a 

 British specimen, so that even if Fitz-Stephen had 

 told us that the forest near London consisted of 

 these trees, it would not necessarily follow that 

 they were not descended from trees originally in- 

 troduced. That they did not exist in great quan- 

 tities may I think be inferred from the fact that 



* " Singulis annis totam decimara Castanearum de Dena, et terrain 

 illam quam adquietavit ipse Comes Herefordiae." 



