[ 1^7 ] 
XX. jd Letter from the Hon. Daines Bar- 
rington, F.R.S. to Mathew .Maty, M.D. 
Sec, R. S. occafioned hy the three precede 
ing Letters. 
Dear Sir, 
February 15, 1771. 
Read March 8, 
1771. 
HAVE lately had an opportunity of 
peruhng three letters from Dr. Du- 
carel, Mr. Thorpe, and Mr. Hafted, which con- 
tend that the fweet chefnut is an indigenous tree 
of this country, and which are intended to be com- 
municated to the Royal Society. 
As I do not fee any reafon for altering the opinions 
which I have happened to form on this fubjedt, from 
what is contained in thefe three letters, I fhould not 
trouble the Society with any anfwer to the contents 
of them, did not Mr. Thorpe contradidt, on the 
teftimony of another perfon, what I have afferted 
I was an ocular witnefs of. 
I mufi: therefore a fecond time repeat, that the 
chefnut woods near Newington, in Kent, are planted 
in rows at four or five yards diftance (other trees often 
intervening) ; and for a proof of this fad, I refer 
Mr. Thorpe to the woods on the North Eaft of the 
church } 
