Edward Jesse

“ The picturesque beauty of the beech depends very much on its soil and situation. It should not be encroached upon by other trees, but have free scope to expand its elegant foliage and branches. Beeches thrive best on calcareous hills, and abound in the vein of chalk which runs through Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, and branches out into Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. In the latter country—which by the way derives its name from the beeches—the beech grows to a large size. ”

“ Like most pollarded trees, their girth is enormous, and their moss-grown roots are thrown out in curious contortions, grasping the ground, as if setting all storms at defiance. Every lover of sylvan scenery will be able to appreciate the beauty of these beeches—
Scathed by the lightning’s bolt, the wintry storm,
A giant brotherhood, ye stand sublime ”

“ Thus, by rendering the Fagus of Cæsar and Virgil a kind of oak, which we have the authority of Vitruvius for doing, we clear two very obscure passages in these celebrated writers. The evidence of Vitruvius, who was contemporary with Virgil, may be the more strongly insisted on, as he wrote expressly on trees proper for building-timber. Materia does not include the beech among them. It may be mentioned that beech is not reckoned timber in many parts of England at this day. ”