Chestnut horse

“ The horse chestnut produces showy spotted flowers. There are thirteen species of this genus, eight of which are North American. The name "horse chestnut" may refer ironically to the coarse nuts, or may arise from the fact that they are occasionally eaten by cattle, or from a horseshoe marking seen on young twigs. Hippocastanum is from hippos, a horse, and castanea, a chestnut. The name buckeye refers to the appearance of the brown nut through the paler husk partly separated when ripe, suggesting the eye of the common deer. [p097] ”

“ Once upon a time there was a big horse called Chestnut. He was as fierce as a fury, and bit everybody who came near him; his groom always had a broken bone, or a bruise at the least; and, as for the other horses, let Chestnut loose in the herd, and there was a fine to-do: a kick for one, a bite for another; it was hurry, skurry, worry, till they took themselves off and left him alone in the clover.
Now the King wanted to buy some horses, and a dealer had driven down a couple of hundred of them for the King to buy. But the King was a skinflint, and wanted to get them cheap ”

“ Like trees of a forest, swayed by strong compelling winds, the people rocked in excitement, tiptoed and craned eager necks, as they watched the magnificent struggle that was drawing to a climax in the stretch. Inch by inch the brave son of Hanover was creeping up on Lauzanne. How loosely the big Chestnut galloped—rolling like a drunken man in the hour of his distress. Close pressed to his neck, flat over his wither lay the intense form of his rider—a camel's hump—a part of the racing mechanism, unimpeding the weary horse in the masterly rigidity of his body and legs ”

“ Hi!" fired at the rate of about fifty per second, volleyed in warning from the crowd round the starting-point, and a white-legged chestnut, with an unearthly white face and flying flounces of tawny mane and tail, came thundering down at the jump. Neither umbrella nor war-horse turned her by a hair's-breadth from her course, still less did her rider, a lean and long-legged country boy, whose single object was to keep on her back. Picking up her white stockings, she took off six feet from the jump, and whizzed like a driven grouse past the combatants and over the furze bushes and the lime. ”

“ Horse chestnuts gathered when they first fall from the tree are soft and easily bored with an awl or darning needle, or the smallest blade of a jack-knife. A hole should be made exactly in the center of the nut and a perfectly straight piece of twig inserted, pointed at one end and extending a half inch above the horse chestnut at the top to hold it by. Another way to make a horse chestnut top is to cut the nut in half, crosswise, and insert halves of toothpicks in each section, making two tops instead of one. ”

“ She heard the thud of his horse behind her, and the black spurted again. But the chestnut crept up till it was level with her girths—till the two horses were neck and neck.
"Pull, darling, pull!" With a wild thrill she heard his voice low and tense beside her; regardless of everything, she stole one look at his steady eyes, which flashed a message of confidence back.
"Pull—pull, on that off rein."
She felt the chestnut hard against her legs, boring into her as the man, exerting every ounce of his strength, started to ride her off. ”

“ Just before dawn, when I was beginning to think that we should easy win the race if the girl could but hold out, if it did not kill her, the chestnut struck a leg into the crack of the prairie, and horse and girl spilt on the ground together. ”

“ The leaves are composed of seven radiating leaflets (long-wedge-shaped) ; when young they are downy and drooping. From the early date of its leafing year by year, a horse-chestnut in the Tuileries is known as the “Marronnier du 20 mars.” The flowers of the horse-chestnut, which are white dashed with red and yellow, appear in May, and sometimes, but quite exceptionally, again in autumn; they form a handsome erect panicle, but comparatively few of them afford mature fruit. ”

“ The great avenues of horse-chestnut, five in number, and running parallel with a length of rather more than a mile and an aggregate breadth of nearly two hundred yards, are formal enough in design, but the mass of foliage gives them the effect of a wood. They lead nowhere in particular, and are flanked by glades and copses in which the genuinely rural prevails. ”

“ The Horse-chestnut is extremely well adapted to parks, not only because it grows to a large size and forms a beautiful regular head, thereby becoming a pleasing object at a distance, but also on account of the quantity of nuts it yields, which are excellent food for deer, so that where great numbers of deer are kept, the planting of these trees in abundance is to be recommended. It is also very suitable for avenues, or walks, though it has been objected that its leaves fall early in the autumn. ”

“ The well-known Horse Chestnut, in sheltered spots, is very ornamental, as is also the Spanish Chestnut; the latter spreads rapidly. Where immediate effect is required, nothing gives more satisfaction than the White Poplar; it grows in a wet soil better than anything else. ”

“ This horse is believed to be the only one of its kind in England.
The colour of the Arab varies; white is the most highly esteemed, but bay and chestnut are common, black being rare. Strange as it may seem, the white breed is never born white. ”

“ In the spring he plays havoc with the tender shoots of the horse-chestnut, showering them on the ground; while he is so fond of acorns that he is accused even of pulling up young oak plants to devour the remains of the acorns below. But we doubt that one squirrel in ten inflicts serious injury on anybody. ”

“ One novelty we discovered, viz., that on each side along a portion of the newly-cleared ground, young saplings had been planted at regular intervals; these, we were told, were horse-chestnuts, procured from the United States expressly for the purpose of forming a double row of trees here. In the neighbourhood of York the horse-chestnut was then a rarity.
Everywhere throughout the North American continent, as in the numerous newly-opened areas of the British Empire elsewhere on the globe's surface, instances, of course, abound of wonderful progress made in a brief interval of time. ”

“ As an avenue tree, the horse chestnut has few, if any, superiors. Perhaps the finest examples in Scotland of this manner of planting it are to be seen at Gilmerton, in East Lothian, and Drummond Castle, in Perthshire; while in England the splendid double avenue at Bushey Park, Middlesex, has long been famous, "Chestnut Sunday" being a noted festival for Londoners when the trees are in full bloom. ”

“ If fired at he is frightened, and scampers off altogether. The Chanthan people sometimes catch them by snares—sometimes shoot them. From all I have seen of the animal I should pronounce him to be neither a horse nor an ass. His shape is as much like that of the one as the other, but his cry is more like braying than neighing. The prevailing colour is a light reddish-chestnut, but the nose, the under-part of the jaw and neck, the belly and the legs are white, the mane is dun and erect, the ears are moderately long, the tail bare and reaching a little below the hock. ”

“ The leaves of the Horse-chestnut are large, of a deep green colour, fine, and palmated, and appear very early in the spring; it is naturally uniform in its growth. In the spring it produces long spikes, with beautiful flowers white and variegated, generally in such number as to cover the whole tree, and to give it the appearance of one gigantic bouquet. ”

“ The fallen leaves are relished by sheep and deer, and afford a good litter for flocks and herds.
One variety of the horse-chestnut has variegated leaves, and another double flowers. Darwin observed that Ae. Pavia, the red buckeye of North America, shows a special tendency, under unfavourable conditions, to be double-blossomed. The seeds of this species are used to stupefy fish. The scarlet-flowered horse-chestnut, Ae. rubicunda, is a handsome tree, less in height and having a rounder head than the common form; it is a native of North America. ”

“ He cracks his whip; the horses throw up their heads and break into a canter; the cavaliers turn pea-green about the [pg 73] chops, let go the reins and clutch saddle-pommels.
The leading horse, a rakish chestnut, finding his head free at last and being heartily fed-up with the whole business, suddenly bolts out of the manège and legs it across the meadow, en route for stables and tea. ”

“ Next to the hickory nuts, we must rank the chestnuts. Some may give them first place in the list of American nut trees. In England the chestnut trees one hears about are never praised for their nuts. English boys and girls do not eagerly plan for half-holidays spent in the jolly sport of chestnutting. Their chestnut trees turn out to be very familiar to our eyes. They are the horse chestnuts that we see so often at home. ”

“ The long spikes of pretty red flowers are usually produced in great abundance, and as they stand well above the foliage, and are of firm lasting substance, they have a most pleasing and attractive appearance. As there are numerous forms of the red-flowered Horse Chestnut, differing much in the depth of flower colouring, it may be well to warn planters, for some of these have but a faint tinge of pink overlying a dirty yellowish-green groundwork, while the finest and most desirable tree has the flowers of a decided pinky-red. ”

“ The growth of the tree is very rapid, and consequently the timber is soft and of no value where durability is required. Still, its even grain and susceptibility to a high polish make it useful for indoor wood, such as cabinet-making and flooring. It is also used for making charcoal for the gunpowder mills. Although Salvator Rosa and other landscape painters have made such good use of the Sweet Chestnut pictorially, they have utterly neglected the Horse Chestnut ”

“ The Horse Chestnut is a native of the mountain regions of Greece, Persia, and Northern India, and is believed to have been introduced to Britain about 1550. It is not a tree [Pg 140] that will be found in the woodlands, or even by the wayside, except when it is behind a fence; yet it constantly greets the rambler who has left the suburban gardens behind him, and in the public parks—notably the magnificent avenue of Bushey Park—where by contrast it exhibits itself as the grandest of all flowering trees. ”

“ The chestnut is directly in her rear; every blow gets a little more out of her. Half the short interval to the goal is passed, when Trustee diverges from his straight course, and shows his head along side Bryan's wheel. Catching his horse short, Case puts his whip upon him for the first time, shakes him up with a great shout, and crowds him past the mare, winning the heat by a length. ”

“ Body generally soft, silky brownish-ashy, with a purplish cast, the wing-coverts and scapulars more brownish, becoming more reddish anteriorly and ashy posteriorly; the rump and upper tail-coverts, as well as the secondaries, being nearly pure ash. Anteriorly the color passes gradually into deep vinaceous-chestnut on the forehead to behind the eye and on the cheeks; abdomen yellowish-white. Lower tail-coverts deep chestnut. ”

“ He has just reached the interesting age of four years, is dark chestnut in colour, and sixteen hands two and a half inches in height; grazing out there, he does not look anything like that size. Well-bred horses always look so much smaller than they really are, especially if they are of good shape and well proportioned. ”

“ Bright chestnut is the prevailing colour among the wild horses. The lambs which are not from merinos, but the tana basta and burda of the Spaniards, at first are covered with wool, and when this is timely shorn, it grows again; if the proper time is allowed to elapse, the wool falls off, and is succeeded by short, shining, close hair, like that of the goat in the same climate. Every animal, it would appear, like man, requires time to accustom itself to climate. ”

“ The chestnut about the head in adult males varies in amount with the individual; sometimes (as in 20,633, May, Moose Factory, Hudson’s Bay Territory) there is an oblong spot of chestnut in the middle of the crown, but generally this is absent. Very frequently the chestnut tinges the throat. All variations in these respects appear, however, to be individual, and not dependent at all on locality. West Indian specimens appear to be absolutely identical with those from North America.
Autumnal specimens are browner, the chestnut markings much obscured.
PLATE XII.
1. ”

“ It is a really beautiful creature, rich red chestnut in colour on the upper surface, jet black as to the lower surface, the limbs also black, the snout and the inside of the ears white, the tail bushy, reddish-brown in colour, and indistinctly ringed. The fact of the under surface being black while the upper is bright reddish-yellow is remarkable; with most animals, when there is any difference in colour, it is the under surface which is lighter. The body and head are about half a yard long, the tail about a foot. ”

“ When the chestnut color is first assumed, it is of a dull tint, and is obscured by dusky margins to the feathers; the chin is white, and the throat and fore neck uniform brown, with which the chestnut feathers are often mingled. ”

“ DESCRIPTION.—"Light chestnut or olive-brown, with an eye-spot; the margin of the lips, the tail beneath, limbs within, and abdomen, white—in summer many assume a paler and more yellow tint, and get a few white spots, and the old buck assumes a dark slaty colour; the horns resemble those of a young spotted deer, with both the basal and upper tines very small, the former pointing directly upwards at a very acute angle, and the latter directed backwards and inwards, nearly at a right angle, occasionally pointing downwards" (Jerdon) . ”