162 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. frighted those out of the baths at Antandro, whose roof was laid with 

 "^^f^^ this material, but which, Pliny says, was of Hazel, very unlike it. — 

 Formerly they made consultory staves of this tree ; and the variegated 

 rods which Jacob peeled to lay in the troughs, to impress a fancy in his 

 father-in-law's conceiving ewes, are said to have been of this material. 

 The coals are excellent for the smith, being soon kindled, and as soon ex- 

 tinguished ; but the ashes of Chestnut-wood are not convenient to make a 

 lye with, because it is observed to stain the linen. As for the fruit, it is 

 better to beat it down from the tree some little time before it falls off of 

 itself; thus the nuts will keep the better, or else you must kiln-dry them. 

 But we give that fruit to our swine in England, which is amongst the 

 delicacies of princes in other countries, and, being of the larger nut, 

 is a lusty and masculine food for rustics at all times, and of better 

 nourishment for husbandmen than cole and rusty bacon, yea, or beans 

 to boot ; instead of which, they boil them in Italy with their bacon ; 

 and, in Virgil's time, they eat them with milk and cheese ^ The 

 best tables in France and Italy make them a service, eating them with 

 salt, in wine, or juice of lemon and sugar, being first roasted in embers 

 on the chaplet ; and, doubtless, we might propagate their use among our 

 common people, (as of old the BaXavo^ayo.) being a food so cheap, and 

 so lasting. In Italy they boil them in wine, and then smoke them 

 a little ; these they call anseri, or geese, I know not why : Those 

 of Piedmont add fennel, cinnamon, and nutmeg to their wine ; but first 

 they peel them. Others macerate them in rose-water. The bread of the 

 flour is exceedingly nutritive ; it is a robust food, and makes women well- 

 complexioned, as I have read in a good author. They also make fritters 

 of chestnut flour, which they wet with rose-water, and sprinkle with 

 grated parmigiano, and so fry them in fresh butter for a delicate. How 

 we here use Chestnuts in stewed meats and beatille pies, our French 

 cooks teach us ; and this is in truth their very best use, and very com- 

 mendable ; for it is found that the eating of them raw, or in bread, 

 as they do much in the Limosin, is apt to swell the belly, though without 

 any other inconvenience that I can learn ; and yet some condemn them 



« Tityrus, in his invitation to Melibceus, says, 



Sunt nobis mitia poma, 



Castaneae molles, et pressi copia lactis. 



ECL. i, 1.81. 



