CHAP. CV.

coryla'cea:, pa'gus.

1957

times, consecrated to Diana, by the common consent of all the inhabitants ofLatium, who paid their devotions to that goddess there. One of these treeswas of such surpassing beauty, that Passienus Crispus, a celebrated orator, whowas twice consul, and who afterwards married the Empress Agrippina, was sofond of it, that he not only delighted to repose beneath its shade, but fre-quently poured wine on the roots, and used often to embrace it.” Beechen cupswere used by the Latin shepherds ; and this custom is frequently alluded toby the poets. The oldest British writers on rural affairs mention the beechas one of the four indigenous timber trees of England. Its timber, however,was considered inferior to that of the three other timber trees, viz. the oak,the ash, and the elm. The mast of the beech has been, from the earliest times,valued as food for swine; and, in some parts of Buckinghamshire, where thetree abounds, swine are still driven into the beech woods in autumn. About1721, Aaron Hill, the poet, proposed a scheme for paying off the nationaldebt with the profits of the oil to be made from beech nuts; but hisscheme fell to the ground. Other plans for making beech oil have been sug-gested, but always without success. Indeed, it is probable that the mastrequires to be ripened in a warmer climate than that of Britain to make itproduce oil in sufficient quantities for profit; as Linnaeus expressly statesthat, in Sweden, scarcely any oil at all can be expressed from it. The useful-ness of the beech, at the time when forests were chiefly valued for the numberof swine that they could support, together with the facility with which thetree is raised from seed, must have rendered it one of the first trees propagatedand planted by art. Accordingly, Gerard, in 1597, speaks of the excellenteffect which the nuts had in fattening swine, deer, and pigeons ; and Par-kinson, writing in 1640, says that the beech is planted in parks, forests, andchases, to feed deer; but, in other places, to fatten swine, “ whose fat,” he adds,“ will be softer than theirs that are fattened with acorns.” The beauty of thistree, the density of its shade, and the classical associations connected with it,independently altogether of the uses of its fruit, occasioned it to be earlyplanted as an ornamental tree, both in Britain and on the Continent. Wefind both Evelyn and Cook recommending it for shady walks, avenues, andhedges; for which latter purpose, where it is desired to enclose and warmgardens, Boutcher observes, this tree has hardly an equal. Between 1790 andand 1800, some trunks of beech trees were found at a considerable depthbelow the surface, in St. Leonard’s Forest, Hampshire. They had evidentlybeen squared with proper tools; and are supposed to have lain there eversince the time of the Romans. The beech, Dr. Walker observes, was notmuch planted in Scotland till between 1540 and 1560; and many of the treesthen planted at Hopetoun House, Arniston, Inverary, and Newbattle, stillexist, and are the oldest in the country. The beech was probably planted inIreland about the same time that it was introduced into Scotland; and itattains an enormous size on the calcareous loams and the sloping sides of hillsof that country. The first planted beeches in Ireland are believed to be thoseat Shelton Park; but the largest is in Charleville Forest. The mostextensive planter of the beech tree in Scotland has been the Earl of F’ife,who, in the latter half of the last century', planted many thousand beechtrees in the county of Moray, for which he received the gold medal ofthe Society of Arts. In England, after the Revolution of 1688, whenWilliam III. introduced the Dutch style of gardening, the beech was muchplanted for hedges, both for shelter in gardens and nurseries, and for form-ing the clipped sides of alleys in geometrical plantations. Extensive plant-ations of beech for timber were made, between 1784 and 1788, at Belmont inStaffordshire, and by the Bishop of Llandaff near Ambleside. The tree stillcontinues to be planted; but, now, more for ornamental purposes than for thevalue of either its timber or its fruit. Between 1680 and 1690, Lord Scar-borough, according to Mitchell, had an avenue cut through Stanstead Forest,in Sussex; and within the Park, on each side of the entrance of the avenue,there were about 10 acres planted with beech, which, in 1827, were from

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