184 



TREATISE ON THE CULTURE AND 



trees have alfo a very noble appearance, and are therefore 

 very fit to plant in parks, &c. 



Gerard fays, that in his time there were feveral woods of 

 Chemuts in England, particularly one near Feveriham in 

 Kent ; and Fitz- Stephens, in a defcription of London written 

 by him in Henry the Second's time, fpeaks of a very noble 

 for eft which grew on the North part of it. This tree grows 

 fometimes to an amazing fize. Not to mention thofe abroad, 

 there is one at Lord Ducie's at Tortworth, in the county of 

 Gloucefler, which meafures nineteen yards in circumference, 

 and is mentioned by Sir Robert Atkyns, in his Hiftory of that 

 county, as a famous tree in King John's time ; and by Mr. 

 Evelyn, in his Sylva, book 3d, chap. 7, p. 232, fourth edi- 

 tion, to have been fo remarkable for its magnitude in the 

 reign of King Stephen, as then to be called the Great Chefnut 

 of Tortworth ; from which it- may reafonably be fuppofed to 

 have been (landing before the Conqueft. Lord Ducie had a 

 Drawing of it taken and engraved in 1772. One of the prints 

 is now in my pofleffion, and was a prefent from my much- 

 efteemed friend, the late Captain William Lockyer, of the 

 Royal Navy, and Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hof- 

 pital *. Formerly a great part of London was built with 



* At A Hi ted -park, near Epfom, the feat of Richard Howard, Efq. there are a great 

 many Spanifh Chefnuts, that were fown by a gardener now living, one of which, at 

 three feet from the ground, meafures feven feet in circumference, and laas a trunk up- 

 wards of fifty feet high. 



Since writing the above, I have feen the old gardener, Thomas Davie (who is now 

 77 years old), and have had fome converfation with him. He fays, that at the age of 15 

 he bought three fhillings-worth of Chefnuts in London on purpofe to treat his fellow- 

 fervants; but finding that they would not accept of them, he fowed them in a bed in the 

 garden at Afhted, which then belonged to the Earl of Suffolk, and afterwards planted 

 out the young trees where they now Hand. Thefe trees are, therefore, at this time fixty- 

 two years old, from the feed. 



Chefnut 



