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    256 PEUITS IN THEIR SEASON.

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    $. Pheasant Are The Fresh Fruits That De...

    are used to make crates for the potters , and in Durham they form the " corves" or large baskets used in the coal-pits . They produce

    , also a very light charcoal , specially excellent for gunpowder , and when charred in closed iron tubes furnish the artist with crayons

    for . his first inspirations . Formerly , another use was found for thenr in country places "where yeast was not easily procurable , a bunch of

    the twisted twigs being steeped in ale during its fermentation were then hung up to dry , when what they had thus imbibed would keep

    good for several months . It was not the branches alone of the hazel that were supposed ,

    during the reign of superstition , to be endowed with mystical powers , for a belief was once prevalentthat the ashes of the burned

    nut-, shells applied to the back of a child ' s head would turn its eyes from grey to black . Many too were the nuts that were committed to the

    flames in the course of incantations , especially on All-Hallows Eve , sometimes called _ISTut-crack Nightfrom the general custom of

    setting fire to the fruit in couples on , that evening , in order to divine the destiny of human pairs . The mode of augury is well described

    in some verses quoted by London from an Irish collection of poems : —

    " Of These wliat glowing in human nuts life are we emblem view ' s true The ill-matched couple fret and , fume

    And Or from thus each in strife other themselves wildly start consume , But And see with the a noise _hajDpy for , happy evei _* part pair , .

    With In genuin mutual e love fondness and truth while sincere they , burn , And Still to as each the vital other kindl arks decay y turn ,

    Together gently sp sink away , , Their Till life ming ' s fierce led ashes ordeal rest being at last _jDast . " ,

    Could the momentous choice be in anywise influenced by the sight of so lively an illustration of its importancewe might be glad

    , to see nut-burning revived , and become as common a Christmas pastime as nut cracking .

    It is a beautiful plant , the nut-bush whence these rural treasures are derived , and maintains its beauty moreover for the greater part

    of the year , blushing rosy in earliest spring with the crimson tufts of its female flowersand lingering in the golden glory of its autumnal

    , array long after most of its woodland brethren have lost their less faithful leaves . The tree is indeed never quite bare , for before

    the fall of the leaf , the male catkins , in greyish pendulous clusters , like groups of caterpillars hung loosely by their heads , have made

    their appearance on the previous year ' s shoots , and coming into full bloom by the end of Octoberremain thus throughout the winter , in

    patient waiting for their rosy , brides , for the female flowers , all

    blushing with their crimson stigmas , emerging from oval scaly buds , do

    256 Peuits In Their Season.

    256 _PEUITS IN THEIR SEASON .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1860, page 256, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121860/page/40/