The walnut-tree has long existed in England, and it is estimated that upwards of 50,000 bushels of walnuts are disposed of in the wholesale markets of the London district annually. Who is not pleased to hear every Autumn the familiar cry of:—
| “Crack ’em and try ’em, before you buy ’em, Eight a-penny—All new walnuts Crack ’em and try ’em, before you buy ’em, A shilling a-hundred—All new-walnuts. |
The history of the happy and social walnut involves some curious misconceptions. Take its name to begin with. Why walnut? What has this splendid, wide-spreading tree to do with walls, except such as are used as stepping-stones for the boys to climb up into the branches and steal the fruit? Nothing whatever! for, if we are to believe the learned in such matters, this fine old English tree, as it is sometimes called, is not an English tree at all, but a distinct and emphatic foreigner, and hence the derivation. The walnut is a native of Persia, and has been so named to distinguish the naturalised European from its companions, the hazel, the filbert, and the chesnut. In “the authorities” we are told that “gual” or “wall” means “strange” or “exotic,” the same root being found in Welsh and kindred tongues; hence walnut. It is true, at any rate, that in France they retain the distinctive name “Noix Persique.” There is another mistaken theory connected with the tree which bears a fruit so dear to society at large, for someone has been hazardous enough to assert that:—
| “A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree, The more you beat them the better they be.” |
And this ribald rhyme—which is of Latin origin, is now an established English proverb, or proverbial phrase, but variously construed. See Nash’s “Have with you to Saffron-Walden; or, Gabriel Harvey’s Hunt is up,” 1596.—Reprinted by J. P. Collier, 1870. Moor, in his “Suffolk Words,” pp. 465, furnishes another version, which is rather an epigram than a proverb:—
| “Three things by beating better prove; A Nut, an Ass, a Woman; The cudgel from their back remove, And they’ll be good for no man.” “Nux, asinus, mulier simili sunt lege ligata. Hæc tria nil recté faciunt si verbera cessant. Adducitur a cognato, est temen novum.”—Martial. |
“Sam.... Why he’s married, beates his wife, and has two or three children by her: for you must note, that any woman beares the more when she is beaten.”—A Yorkshire Tragedy: “Not so New, as Lamentable and true—1608,” edition 1619.—Signature, A. Verso.
| “Flamineo.—Why do you kick her, say? Do you think that she’s like a walnut tree? Must she be cudgell’d ere she bear good fruit?” |
—Webster’s “White Devil,” 1612. iv. 4. (Works, edited by W. C. Hazlitt, II. 105.)
Now all these statements are at once unkind and erroneous all round. We know what is declared of the “man who, save in the way of kindness, lays his hand upon a woman,” to say nothing of the punishment awaiting him at the adjacent police court.[15] As to dogs, those who respect the calves of their legs had best beware of the danger of applying this recipe to any but low-spirited animals. In the case of the walnut-tree, the recommendation is again distinctly false, and the results mis-described. Possibly there are walnut-trees, as there are women, dogs, and horses, who seem none the worse for the stick; but, as a general rule, kindly treatment, for vegetable and animal alike, is the best, and, in the long run, the wisest.