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lories to the excellency of our timber ; but 

 the late war has given so many proofs of our 

 defeating our enemies with ships of their own 

 building, that they must now acknowledge 

 that the bravery of a British sailor is as firm 

 as the heart of an English oak. 



It was not until we had manufactured 

 into furniture all the curious woods of the 

 New World, that the transcendent splendor 

 of the English oak was brought to any degree 

 of perfection by the late Mr. Bullock, of 

 Tenterden-street, and other eminent cabinet- 

 makers. Mr. Penning, of Holies-street, Ca- 

 vendish-square, who I am informed has been 

 the most successful in the choice of this 

 wood, has lately wrought up some old oak- 

 trees of such matchless beauty, that one set 

 of dining-tables brought him the unheard-of 

 price of six hundred pounds. This far ex- 

 ceeds any thing of the kind we read of, 

 even in the luxurious days of the Romans, 

 although Pliny says, " Our wives at home 

 twit us, their husbands, for our expensive 

 tables, when we seem to find fault with their 

 costly pearls/' 



" There is at this day to be seen, "says this 

 author, " a board of citron wood, belonging 

 formerly to M. Tullius Cicero, which cost 

 him ten thousand sesterces; a strange cir- 



