

CHAP. cv. CORYLA'CE*:. QUE'RCUS. 174-7 



economy of our Saxon ancestors, gave particular directions relating to the 

 fattening of swine in woods, since then called pannage, or pawnage. (Mart. 

 Mill.) The same king made injuring or destroying trees penal; and those 

 who did so clandestinely were fined thirty shillings, the very sound of the 

 axe being sufficient conviction ; and the man who felled a tree under whose 

 shadow thirty hogs could stand incurred a double penalty, and was mulcted 

 to sixty shillings. (Hunter's Evelyn.) In a succeeding century, Elfhelmus 

 reserves the pannage of two hundred hogs for his lady, in part of her dower ; 

 and mast is particularly mentioned, about the middle of the eleventh century, 

 in a donation of Edward the Confessor. It appears from the Domesday Book, 

 that, in William the Conqueror's time, oaks were still esteemed principally 

 for the food they afforded to swine ; for the value of the woods, in several 

 counties, is estimated by the number of hogs they would fatten. The survey 

 is taken so accurately, that in some places woods are mentioned of a single 

 hog. (Mart. Mill.) The rights of pannage were greatly encroached on by 

 the Norman princes, in their zeal for extending forests for the chase ; and this 

 was one of the grievances which King John was obliged to redress in the 

 charter of the liberties of the forest. (Chron. Sax.) 



The number of oak forests which formerly existed in Britain is proved by 

 the many names still borne by British towns, which are evidently derived 

 from the word oak. " For one Ash-ford, Beech-hill, Elm-hurst, or Poplar," 

 Burnet remarks, " we find a host of oaks, Oakleys, Actons, Acklands, Aken 

 hams, Acringtons, and so forth. The Saxon ac, aec, aac, and the later ok, 

 okes, oak, have been most curiously and variously corrupted. Thus we find 

 ac, aec, degenerating into ak, ack, aike, ack, acks, whence ax, exe ; often, also, 

 aspirated into hac, hace, and hacks. In Hike manner, we trace oak, oke, ok, 

 oc, ock, ceck, ocke, oks, ocks,ockes, running into oax,ox, oxes, for ox, oxs, with 

 their farther corruptions, auck, uck, huck, hoke, and wok. As an example 

 of this lasf extreme, the town Oakingham, or Ockingham, is at this day 

 called and spelt indifferently Oakingham, Okingham, or Wokingham ; and 

 Oaksey or Oxessey are two common ways of writing the name of one 

 identical place. Oakham, Okeham, Ockham, and Wockham, Hokenorton on 

 the river Oke, Woking in Surrey, Wacton in Herefordshire and Norfolk, Okey 

 or Wokey in Somersetshire, Oakefield or Wokefield in Berkshire, and Old 

 or Wold in Northamptonshire, with the provincial Whom or Whoam, are 

 other similar corruptions." (Amcen. Quer., fol. 11.) 



The history of the use of the British oak in building, carpentry, and for 

 naval purposes, is necessarily coeval with that of the civilisation of the British 

 islands. The timber found in the oldest buildings is uniformly of oak. Pro- 

 fessor Burnet possessed a piece of oak from King John's Palace at Eltham, 

 perfectly sound, fine, and strong, which can be traced back upwards of 500 

 years. The doors of the inner chapels of Westminster Abbey are said to be 

 coeval with the original building ; and if by this is meant Sibert's Abbey of 

 Westminster, which was founded in 611, they must be more than 1200 years 

 old. The shrine of Edward the Confessor, which must be nearly 800 years 

 old, since Edward died in 1066, is also of oak. One of the oaken corona- 

 tion chairs in Westminster Abbey has been in its present situation about 540 

 years. " In the eastern end of the ancient Chapel of St. Stephen, in the Castle 

 of Winchester, now termed the County Hall, is Arthur's round table, the chief 

 curiosity of the place. It bears the figure of that Prince, so famous in the old 

 romances, and the names of several of his knights, Sir Tristram, Sir Gawaine, 

 Sir Gerath, &c. Paulus Jovius, who wrote between 200 and 300 years ago, 

 relates that this table was shown by Henry VIII. to his illustrious visiter 

 the Emperor Charles V., as the actual oaken table made and placed there 

 by the renowned British Prince, Arthur, who lived in the early part of the 

 sixth century ; that is, about 1030 years ago. Hence the poet Dray ton 

 sings, 



'And so great Arthur's seat ould Winchester prefers, 



Whose ould round table yet she vaunteth to be hers.' 



5x3 



