1748 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART IIT, 
Some antiquarians, however, state that the tabulz rotunde were introduced 
into this country by Stephen, and believe that the table in question was 
‘made by him, which in that case would diminish its age 600 years; leaving 
‘it, however, above seven centuries to boast of; enough to render it a most 
‘valuable and interesting monument. It has been perforated by many bullets, 
supposed to have been shot by Cromwell’s soldiers. (Grose and Hutchins.) 
The massive tables, paneled wainscots, and ceiling of Morton Hall, Cheshire ; 
the roofs of Christ-Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, are fine 
specimens of old oak. In Gloucester Cathedral, also, are thirty-one stalls of 
rich tabernacle work on either side, little inferior in point of execution to the 
episcopal throne at Exeter, or to the stalls at Ely; erected in the reign of 
Edward III., and allowed to be among the finest pieces of carving in wood 
now remaining in England of that early date. (Britton.) Of about equal age 
were the carved figures of Edward III. and his Queen Phillippa, in the colle- 
giate church and hospital of St. Catherine, lately removed from the tower to. 
St. Catherine’s newly built church and hospital, in the Regent’s Park. The 
screens, stalls, seats, &c., in the old church were all of oak, beautifully carved, 
and very ancient; the old oaken pulpit, also, which now adorns the new 
structure, was the donation of Sir Julius Cesar, a.p. 1621. The rich carvings 
in oak which ornamented the King’s room in Stirling Castle were executed 
about 300 years ago, and are many of them still in good preservation in the 
collections of the curious. In digging away the foundation of the old Savoy 
Palace, London, which was built upwards of 650 years since, the whole of 
the piles, many of which were of oak, were found in a state of perfect 
soundness, as, also, was the planking which covered the pile heads. ( Tredgold.) 
Buffon mentions the soundness of the piles of the bridge which the Emperor 
Trajan built across the Danube; one of which, when taken up, was found 
to be petrified to the depth of three quarters of an inch, but the rest of the 
wood was little different from its ordinary state. And of the durability of oak | 
timber, the oldest wooden bridge of which we have any account, viz. that one 
famous from its defence by Horatius Cocles, and which existed at Rome in 
the reign of Ancus Martius, 500 years before Christ, might be given as 
another example, The piles which supported the buttresses, and immense 
uncouth starlings which confined the waterway and so greatly disfigured 
old London Bridge, were some of them of oak; and I [Professor Burnet} 
have a specimen of one, which is far from being in a rotten state: and the 
still older piles on which the bridge piers rested were also in a very strong 
and sound condition: nay, those stakes which it is said the ancient Britons 
drove into the bed of the Thames to impede the progress of Julius Cesar, 
near Oatlands, in Surrey, some of which have been removed for examination, 
have withstood the destroyer time nearly 2000 years.” (Amen. Quer., fol. '7.) 
In Cambden’s time, the place where these stakes were found was called 
Cowey Stakes. In the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. ii. pl. 7., is a sketch of 
an old wooden church at Greenstead, near Ongar, the ancient Aungare, in 
Essex. The inhabitants have a tradition, that the corpse of a dead king once 
rested in this church; and it is believed to have been built as a temporary re- 
ceptacle for the body of St. Edmund (who was slain a. p. 946), and subse- 
quently converted into a parish church. The nave, or body, which renders 
it so remarkable, is composed of the trunks of oaks, about 1 ft. 6 in. in dia- 
meter, split through the centre, and roughly hewn at each end, to let them into 
a sill at the bottom, and a plank at the top, where they are fastened by wooden 
pegs. The north wall is formed of these half oaks, set side by side as closely 
as their irregular edges will permit. In the south wall there is an interval left 
for the entrance ; and the ends, which formerly were similar, have now to the 
one a brick chancel, and to the other a wooden belfry, attached. The original 
building is 29 ft. 9 in. long, by.14 ft. wide, and 5 ft. Gin. high on the sides, which 
supported the primitive roof. The oaks on the northern side have suffered 
more from the weather than those on the southern side; but both are still 
80 strong, and internally so sound, that, although “ corroded and worn by 
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