and common tree in Shakespeare's
time, for all the writers of his day speak of it as a high and large
tree, and I should think it very likely that Walnut trees were even more
extensively planted in his day than in our own. There are many noble
specimens to be seen in different parts of England, especially in the
chalk districts, for "it delights," says Evelyn, "in a dry, sound, rich
land, especially if it incline to a feeding chalk or marl; and where it
may be protected from the cold (though it affects cold rather than
extreme heat), as in great pits, valleys, and highway sides; also in
stony ground, if loamy, and on hills, especially chalky; likewise in
cornfields." The grand specimens that may be seen in the sheltered
villages lying under the chalk downs of Wiltshire and Berkshire bear
witness to the truth of Evelyn's remarks. But the finest English
specimens can bear no comparison with the size of the Walnut trees in
warmer countries, and especially where they are indigenous. There they
"sometimes attain prodigious size and great age. An Italian architect
mentions having seen at St. Nicholas, in Lorraine, a single plank of the
wood of the Walnut, 25ft. wide, upon which the Emperor Frederick III.
had given a sumptuous banquet. In the Baidar Valley, near Balaclava, in
the Crimea, stands a Walnut tree at least 1000 years old. It yields
annually from 80,000 to 100,000 Nuts, and belongs to five Tartar
families, who share its produce equally."--_Gardener's Chronicle._

The economic uses of the Walnut are now chiefly confined to the timber,
which is highly prized both for furniture and gun-stocks, and to the
production of oil, which is not much used in Europe, but is highly
valued in the East. "It dries much more slowly than any other distilled
oil, and hence its great value, as it allows the artist as much time as
he requires in order to blend his colours and finish his work. In
conjunction with amber varnish it forms a vehicle which leaves nothing
to be desired, and which doubtless was the vehicle of Van Eyck, and in
many instances of the Venetian masters, and of Correggio."--_Arts of the
Middle Ages_, preface. In mediaeval times a high medicinal value was
attached to the fruit, for the celebrated antidote against poison which
was so firmly believed in, and which was attributed to Mithridates, King
of Pontus, was chiefly composed of Walnuts. "Two Nuttes (he is speaking
of Walnuts) and two Figges, and twenty Rewe leaves, st