We conclude these remarks upon our native oaks with the fervent hope that in “Merry England” it may ever be as described by dear old Chaucer:—
A pleasant grove
*****
In which were okes grete, streight as a line,
Undir the which the grass so fresh of hew
Was newly sprong, and an eight fote, or nine,
Every tree well from his fellow grew,
With branches brode, laden with levis new,
That, sprongin out agen, the sonnè shene.
Some very rede; and some a glad light grene.
The Floure and the Leafe.
CHAPTER XLIII.
ON THE CHESTNUT AND WALNUT.
The Chestnut and Walnut are here brought together, not only as producing two useful kinds of hard-wooded timber, but from the fact of both being bearers of esteemed kinds of fruit. They are neither grown to the same extent in England as on the Continent, and probably neither of them is indigenous to this country, although it is stated by Sir W. Hooker to grow in woods apparently wild, in the south and south-west of England. As regards the fruit of the former, it may be said that in parts of Spain “Spanish Chestnuts” are a staple article of food. In England they are sometimes brought to table as a stuffing for turkeys, or roasted for dessert; but their greatest consumption among us is with the poor, who, in winter, with a halfpenny-worth of roasted chestnuts enjoy the double luxury of warm fingers and a sweet nutritious diet. Walnuts, as a fruit, are highly esteemed by all classes: as much by those who crack and peel them in a second or third class railway carriage, as by the squire who takes them as a concomitant with his glass of port. With us they are only cared for while they can be peeled, but abroad they are carefully dried, in which state they form an important article of commerce. In the Portuguese court of the International Exhibition of 1861, in our capacity of juryman, we had brought before us specimens of dried walnuts from as many as fifty exhibitors.