CATALOGUE OF THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 165 



It has also been said that it is derived from the Dutch wagen 

 (waggon) or wen and schot (partition), which might refer to the sides 

 of a waggon or to a division within it. In former days, waggons when 

 journeying long distances had divisions for sleeping accommodation. This 

 kind of partition was introduced into the house, the rooms of which were 

 wagenschoted — wainscoted. Much of the panelling of early date was 

 carried out in so-called deal, the produce of Pinus sylvestris, but wealthier 

 people were able to gratify their taste by using oak. As at that time saws 

 were not used, the only possible method of conversion was that of splitting, 

 and as oak splits on the meduUary ray, the whole of the wood used showed 

 a maximum display of clash or figure. 



It will thus be seen that whichever of the theories of the origin 

 of the term be accepted as the most probable, there is no question that 

 for a room to be trimmed in wainscot oak the wood used must show 

 figure or clash on the face, and that the term " wainscot " used in con- 

 nection with oak means figured oak. 



While the meaning of the term wainscot as applied to oak wood is 

 beyond doubt, the architectural meaning of the term has wandered from 

 the original so far that it denotes a wooden boarding, sometimes panelling, 

 of the walls of a room. The consequence is that there might be ambiguity 

 in a specification demanding that a room shall be wainscoted with oak 

 panelling, but there should be no misunderstanding when the demand 

 is that a room shall be panelled with wainscot oak. Yet to avoid all 

 possibility of litigation it would be well to use the term " quartered " 

 when wainscot oak is wanted, and possibly even supplement this term 

 by " (well, boldly, best) figured." 



Boards obtained by cleavage are necessarily wedge-shaped. With 

 the advent of the saw it was possible rapidly to cut flat boards, but 

 obviously if such boards were sawn exactly along the medullary rays 

 the waste of material would be very great. It was therefore necessary 

 to adopt some practicable and economic approximation to the results 

 obtained by cleavage. 



The following are among such methods of sawing : 



The trunk is sawn down the middle (Fig. i) ; the marginal pieces of 

 the two halves are sawn off and there result two billets, termed wainscot 

 billets. If these are cut in the manner shown in Fig. 2, that is, at right 

 angles to the broad flat face and parallel to the two flat sides, the cut 

 a-b is parallel to the medullary rays and the board yielded will be 

 the most highly figured. A cut along c-d or e-f wUl traverse the 

 medullary rays most obliquely and therefore show some figure, but the 

 silver grain will be smaller and less marked. In fact, the nearer the board 

 is to a-b the larger and bolder will be the figure ; the nearer to c-d or 

 e-f the smaller and less bold will it be. 



