THE CHESTNUT. 



5 



Sir Thomas Dick Lauder mentions, that the 

 roof of the Parliament House in Edinburgh is 

 constructed of it, and the beams, and roofing, and 

 strange projections of many of the wooden houses, 

 which had stood for ages in the ancient part of 

 the Scottish capital, and which were recently 

 pulled down, were found to be of Chestnut ; and 

 what is curious, the timber seems to have been 

 procured from a suburban forest, resembling that 

 on the north side of ancient London ; for it ap- 

 pears, from the city records, that large Oaks and 

 Chestnuts formerly covered the space called the 

 Borough-moor, a wild piece of ground, then lying 

 about two miles to the south-west of the city." 

 Gilpin also states, that he had seen in the belfry 

 of the church at Sutton, near Mitcham in Surrey, 

 beams like Oak, yet plainly appearing to be of 

 a different kind of timber, and supposed to be 

 Chestnut. 



Another argument in favour of this opinion is 

 derived from the fact that there are in England 

 several places which take their name from these 

 trees, consequently that the trees must have grown 

 there in considerable abundance before such names 

 were given. Such are, Norwood Chesteney in the 

 parish of Milton near Sittingbourne, and Chestnut 

 Hill near the same place. In Hertfordshire is a 

 tovm called in old writings Cheston, Chesthunte, 

 Shesterhunte and Cestrehunt; and Philpot, who 

 wrote in 1659, says: There is a manor called 

 Northwood Chasteners, which name complies with 

 the situation, for it stands in a wood where Chest- 

 nut-trees formerly grew in abundance." 



Evidence still more direct is afforded by the 

 mention of trees existing in a living state, at 



