The Oaks 



coming in of the new year, and only a hook of gold was fit for this 

 ceremony. Their Yule log was an oak tree cut down, drawn home 

 and offered on the rude hearth as a sacrifice to Yaioul, the Celtic 

 god of fire, in the feast of midwinter, it was through his favour 

 that winter's icy grasp loosened, and the days began to lengthen. 

 Sleeping under the shade of an oak was counted a sovereign 

 cure for paralytics. The benefits of such treatment must have 

 depended upon the weather, for oaks in thunderstorms seem very 

 prone to "draw the stroke." Shakespeare's famous apostrophe 

 in "Measure for Measure" seconds the popular belief in his time; 

 the opinion prevails among woodsmen to-day: 



"Merciful heaven! 

 Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt 

 Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak 

 Than the soft myrtle." 



There is a whole thunderstorm crowded into these lines. 



Durability is a prime merit in oak timber. The oldest houses 

 in England show their oak beams and panelling as sound to-day 

 as ever. Shrines of the early kings carved in oak have not yet 

 begun to show signs of age. "Antique oak " is imitated by staining 

 to very dark colour the stock used in furniture manufactories. 

 Genuine "antique oak" is a priceless treasure. 

 "^"^ Bog Oak. — This oak, a favourite wood in the decorative 

 arts, is obtained from trunks which have lain and blackened in 

 the peat bogs of Ireland and England for untold centuries. These 

 logs, exhumed, seasoned, and sawed into lumber, bring extrava- 

 gant prices. Wholesale inundation of forests, due possibly to 

 earthquakes, produced some of this bog oak. Tradition has it 

 that, in 55 B. C., Caesar's army, wintering in the land of the Britons, 

 was set to cutting down the forests and dragging the logs into 

 boggy districts. This was to keep the army under strict discipline, 

 and to spite the unfriendly Britons. The camps and bridges the 

 Romans built consumed many of the sacred oak groves, and the 

 surplus, maliciously buried in the swamps, has been discovered 

 and dug up centuries later. This wood is described by Evelyn 

 as taking on a colour and hardness "emulating the politest ebony." 



Structure of Oak Wood — Oak wood shows distinct annual 

 rings, each made of a band of close grained, pale summer wood, and 

 dark, open, porous layer of spring wood. Broad, shining bands of 



