(457) 
In all which Circumftances I find rnoft of the Antients 
fo very well agree, that none of them advsfe the felling 
of Timber for any fort oi ufe before Autumn at fooneft $ 
others not till the Trees have born their Fruit, which 
hysTheophrajius muft always be proportionably later, as 
their Fruits are ripe later in the Year : a third fort not 
till Mid- winter: not till November fays Palladium, nay, 
not till the Winter Solftice, fays the Wife Cato 5 and then 
too in the decreafe or wane of the Moon, between the 
15th and xjd day of her Age, fays Vegetius^ or rather 
according to Collumella between the 20th and the New 
Moon. In general (ays Theophraftns, the Oak muft be 
felPd very late in the Winter, not till December^ as the 
Emperor Conjlantinus Pogonatus pofitively aflerts, the 
Moon too being then under the Earth, as 'tis for the mod 
part in the day-time in thefirft part of its decreafe. And 
the felling of Oak within thofe Limits, they call Tempt- 
fiiva nejura, Felling Timber in Seafon, which they all una- 
nimously pronounce (if thus fell'dj will neither fhrink, 
warp, nor cleave, nor admit of decay, in many years, 
it being as tough as Horn, and the whole Tree in a man- 
ner (as Theophrafius afferts) as hard and firm as the Heart $ 
with whom alfo agrees our Country-manfMr. Evelyn, if 
you fell not Oak (fays he) till the Sap is in repofe, as 
'tis commonly about November and December^ after the 
Froft has well nipped them, the very Saplings thus cur, 
will continue without decay, as long as the Heart of the 
Tree. 
And the reafbn of this is given in fhort hfViiruvius^um 
aeris Hyberni vis comprimit & confolidat arbores^ becaufe 
the Winter Air doth clofe the Pores, and fo confequent- 
ly codfolidates all Trees, by which means the Oak (as 
He and Pliny both exprefs it) will acquire a fort of 
Eternity in its duration 5 and much more will it fo, if it 
bebarktin the^Spring, and left ftanding all the Summer, 
expofed to the Sun and Wind, as is ufual in Stafford/hire^ 
A z and 
