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108 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. French, which is nothing so useful, nor comparably so strong ; insomuch 

 ''^'^'y^^ as I have frequently admired at the sudden failing of most goodly timber 

 to the eye, which, being employed to these uses, does many times most 

 dangerously fly in sunder, as wanting that native spring and toughness 

 which our English Oak is endued withal. And here we forget not the 

 stress which Sir H. Wotton, and other architects, put even in the 

 very position of their growth, their native straightness and loftiness for 

 columns, supporters, cross-beams, &c. ; and it is found that the rough- 

 grained body of a stubbed Oak is the fittest timber for the case of a 

 cider-mill, and such like engines, as best enduring the unquietness 

 of a ponderous rolling-stone. It is good for shingles, pales, laths, coopers' 



•And there- ware, clap-board for wainscot (the ancient intestina opera* — works within 



fore were ioin- tvt i • i ' t r' i ' r 



„ : , doors) and some pannels curiously veined, or much esteem in former 



ers called In- ' ^ _ 



testinarii. See times, till the finer-grained Spanish and Norway timber came amongst 

 i>eg. ii. Cod. ^vhich is likewise of a whiter colour. There is, in New England, 



1'hcodos 



a certain Red Oak, which, being felled, they season in some moist and 

 muddy place. This branches into very curious works. It is observed 

 that Oak will not easily glue to other wood, nor very well with its own 

 kind ; and some woods will never cohere tolerably, as the Box with 

 Hornbeam, though both very hard ; so, nor Service with Cornell, &c. 

 Oak is excellent for wheel-spokes, pins, and pegs, for tyling, &c. Mr. 

 Blyth makes spars and small building timber of Oaks of eleven years 

 growth, which is a prodigious advance. The smallest and straightest 

 is best, discovered by the upright tenour of the bark, as being the most 

 proper for cleaving ; the knottiest for water-works, piles, and the like, 

 because it will drive best and last longest ; the crooked, yet firm, for 

 knee-timber in shipping, mill-wheels, &c.* In a word, how absolutely 

 necessary the Oak is above all the trees of the forest in naval architecture, 

 &c. consult Witsen, lib. i. cap. xiii. 



Were planting of this wood more in use, we should banish our hoops 

 of hazel, &;c. for those of good Copse-Oak, which, being made of the 



• Every person who can measure timber thinks himself qualified to value standing 

 trees ; but such men are often deceived in their estimates. It is the perfect knowledge 

 of the application of the different shaped trees that enables a man to be correct in his 

 valuation. A foot of wood may be of little value to one trade, but of great value 

 to another. This is the grand secret which enriches the purchasers of standing timber. 



