258 C0RYLACEJ3. 



tions of monarchs to their retainers often consisted of the 

 produce of a portion of Oak forest. 



The durability and fitness of the Oak for naval purposes 

 seems to have been appreciated from a very early period, 

 and long before any records we possess, for in the "Journal 

 of Science" (vol. i. p. 244) Sir Joseph Banks mentions 

 the finding of an ancient canoe in Lincolnshire, in April 

 1816, at a depth of eight feet below the surface, when 

 cutting a drain parallel with the river Witham, about two 

 miles east of Lincoln, — it was hollowed out of an Oak 

 tree, and measured thirty feet eight inches in length, 

 and three broad in the widest part ; several other canoes 

 of a similar construction have been discovered in the same 

 county and near to the same locality, and as vessels of 

 a much superior build were in use, long before the time 

 of Alfred, a very ancient, and in all likelihood a date 

 anterior to the invasion of the Romans, may pretty con- 

 fidently be assigned to these primitive vessels which, as 

 Professor Burnet observes, " are only found amongst the 

 rudest people and in the earliest stages of society ." In 

 the time of the Saxons, their numerous ships, or rather 

 oared galleys, were built of Oak ; and after the Conquest, 

 the British navy was fostered with great care, and as early 

 as a. d. 1214, in the reign of King John, the right of 

 England to the dominion of the seas was proclaimed. It 

 was not, however, till the time of Henry the Seventh 

 that three-masted vessels, or ships approaching in magni- 

 tude and form to our present men-of-war, Avere built, al- 

 though cannon had been used aboard ships as early as 1380. 



Oak timber was also used almost exclusively for all 

 building and carpentry purposes ; the timbers of the oldest 

 buildings are uniformly of Oak ; it formed the roofing, as 

 well as the interior decorations, of our ancient churches 



