1748 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



Some antiquarians, however, state that the tabulae rotundae 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 cither 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 Caesar, A.D. 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. (Trcdgold.} 

 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 Codes, 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 Cresar, 

 near Oatlands, in Surrey, some of which have been removed for examination, 

 have withstood the destroyer time nearly 2000 years." (Amcen. Quer., fol. 7.) 

 In Cambden's time, the place where these stakes were found was called 

 Cowey Stakes. In the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. ii. pi. 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. D. 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 1ft. 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. 6 in. 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 

 so strong, and internally so sound, that, although " corroded and worn by 



