192 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF OAK. 



architectural purposes. In our old churches and 

 baronial residences, where the timber-work has not 

 been renewed in modern times, we find it, with 

 scarcely a single exception, consisting either wholly 

 or principally of oak. This is true of all such struc- 

 tures, from those of the earliest date that yet re- 

 main, down to the erections of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury ; nor have we the slightest shadow of reason 

 for believing, that these edifices were composed of dif- 

 ferent materials from innumerable others of co-eval 

 periods, which no longer exist. And if we are cer- 

 tain, from the testimony of our eyes, that the roofs, 

 the floors, and the massive doors of our ancient build- 

 ings were composed of the most durable of all kinds 

 of wood, we are no less sure that the furniture of 

 their apartments were formed of the same ; and the 

 ponderous chairs, tables, bed-steads| &c., which have 

 been handed down to us, demonstrate that the 

 cabinet-makers of those days had ample, as well as 

 cheap, supplies of timber. We may safely add, that 

 if our Gothic forefathers were thus liberal in the 

 use of oak for the above mentioned purposes, it is 

 in the highest degree improbable they should have 

 been less so in the fabrication of ships, or that, 

 with their proverbial love of strength and solidity, 

 they should, in a department where these qualities 



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