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other materials, especially of iron and pottery, were formerly made of beech 

 wood, and no fuel was more esteemed. It has been found too perishable to be 

 really good for timber ; and one reads with a smile of something like incre- 

 dulity the praises formerly lavished upon it. 



Evelyn, in his "Sylva," has much to say in its praise ; and he does but 



echo and corroborate what had been said long before. The ancient poets delight 



in it. Virgil makes his shepherds drink out of beechen bowls. Carved bowls 



of thij kind are the prize of the rival singers in the third eclogue. 



Pocula ponam 

 Fagina, cselatum divini opus Alcimedontis. 



— Virgil, Eclog. 3, 36. 



Two bowls I have, well turned, of beechen wood : 

 Both by diviue Alcimedon were made. — Dryden. 



And when in the first Georgic he directs the farmer to provide himself with 



proper implements, beech is mentioned among the materials of which they 



are to be made. 



Cseditur et tilia ante jugo levis, altaque fagus. 



—Virgil, Geor. 1, 173. 

 Of beech * * * the bending yoke, 

 Or softer linden. — Dryden. 



It was even employed in shipbuilding, especially in the keels of ships and the 



oars of galleys. 



So Claudian : 



Si qui vecturus longinqua per sequora merces 

 Molitur tellure ratem, vitamque procellis 

 Objectare parat, Fagos metitur et Alnos. 



It seems, indeed, that beech-wood is really more suitable for such pur- 

 poses than for others. Loudon says that keels of vessels are often made of 

 it. Experience shows that it is more durable in damp than in dry situations. 

 Mill-dams, sluices, piles, and the outer parts of mill wheel's, are, according to 

 the same author, often made of it. 



But it is to smaller articles and less important uses that it is more 



commonly applied. Bedsteads and chairs are made of it in large quantities. 



Our forefathers made their wooden trenchers and platters of it. But it is held 



in small esteem ; and in Herefordshire, at any rate, is seldom used for any 



but the roughest and commonest purposes. The golden days of unsophisticated 



simplicity are gone : the good old times were over, when 



Hinc olim juvenis mundi melioribus annis 

 Fortunatarum domuum non magna supellez 

 Tota petebatur ; sellas armaria, lectos 

 Et mensas dabat et lances, et pocula fagus. 



—Cowley, PI. 1, 6. 

 The days are gone (if they ever existed) 



When beechen bowls on oaken tables stood ; 

 "When temperate acorns were our fathers' food. 



—Tibullus, 11, 9. 

 Another more important use of beech-wood is gone too. It is no longer 

 used in any large quantities for fuel. Many parts of the kingdom had formerly 

 very little else but wood to burn ; and they valued beech-wood especially, for 





