Qf Timber, especially Oaky Sfc, '. 75* 



oak is so decidedly superior ; and that the brittleness of locust 

 (which is yet a very valuable wood) renders it useless for many 

 of those more important purposes to which oak is peculiarly 

 adapted and applied. Nichols, who was formerly surveyor of 

 jhe royal woods, speaks decidedly on this point : he says, *' oak 

 is the only timber of any consequence made use of for build- 

 ing ships for the navy, or, I believe, ever will with good effect." 



It is to the durability of oak, however, that I propose 

 chiefly to restrict my present observations ; for when I find, as 

 I do, from specimens in my own possession, that oaken tim- 

 ber built into Prince John's palace at Eltham ; into Windsor 

 Gastle, of the time of Edward III. ; from the Spanish Armada, 

 wrecked in 1588 ; from Greensted church, built A.D. 1010, 

 are all good, strong, firm, and sound, after being in their 

 variety of situations several centuries, I cannot but contend 

 that oak, in conjunction with its other qualities, is, when pro- 

 perly selected and applied, a most enduring wood. Eltham 

 Palace and Windsor Castle give evidence of its durability in 

 ordinarily dry situations for upwards of five hundred years at 

 least ; the wreck of the Armada, * croped* up a few years since 

 in Tobermoray Bay, had been submerged between two and 

 three hundred years ; and the rough oaken walls of Greensted 

 church have been exposed to heat and cold, wet and dry, for 

 about eight centuries and a quarter, and are still so strong and 

 sound as to defy all calculation as to the ages they yet may 

 probably endure. 



I have said that the sensible qualities of oak have been long 

 made the subject of inquiry ; and what, to ship-builders, mill- 

 wrights, &c., is of equal, if not greater import, its power of 

 endurance, especially its endurance when subjected to the in- 

 fluence of weather, to the frequent changes from wet to dry, 

 and from heat to cold, to which ships and mill-work, and such 

 like most important structures, are constantly and inevitably ex- 

 posed, has occasionally, though with much less success, forced 

 itself upon their attention. The extreme variability in the du- 

 ration of wood thus subjected to atmospheric changes is so 

 notorious, that certain kinds have long been almost exclusively 

 appropriated to certain purposes, and the oak has been pre- 

 eminently famed for endurance between wind and water, where 

 most other woods, however tough, or stiff*, or heavy, they may 



