/ · 1894 Brewer’s · W · Walnut Tree
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It is said that the walnut tree thrives best if the nuts are beaten off with sticks, and not gathered. Hence Fuller says, “Who, like a nut tree, must be manured by beating, or else would not bear fruit” (bk. ii. ch. 11). The saying is well known that—
“A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree,
The more you beat them the better they be.”
Taylor, the Water-Poet.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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