THE OAK. 11 



point at which this timber could be conveyed 

 away by water-carriage must have been Gains- 

 borough, and from thence on the Humber to 

 Hull, for shipment to the dockyards. 



The 'Royal George' was launched in 1755, 

 and bore the flags of Lords Anson, Hawke, 

 and Rodney; of Admirals Boscawen, Sir 

 John Lockhart Ross, and Kempenfelt: and 

 went down at Spithead on the 29th of Au- 

 gust, 1782, when nearly 900 perished. 



The largest extent of land covered with 

 oak and ash and other white-wood timber in 

 our vicinity, is in the adjoining northern divi- 

 sion of the county of Chester, the Middlewood 

 coppice in Norbury, on the estate of William 

 John Legh, Esq., of Lyme. This noble wood, 

 when the present owner's grandfather suc- 

 ceeded to the Lyme estate in 1794, on the 

 death of his uncle, Peter Legh, Esq., was full 

 of heavy timber, and it was felled soon after 

 he came into possession. It contained 999 



