CEDRUS LIBANI 
43 
favourable account of its application to ornamental carved work. “Mr. Wilcox, of Warwick,” he says, 
“a most ingenious and skilful carver (in his works little inferior to the celebrated Gibbons), has now in his 
rooms some specimens of furniture made of Cedar of Lebanon, ornamented with carved work in flowers, 
leaves, &c., in the best taste, and in sharpness and colour so similar to box-wood, that any common observer 
would mistake it to be such. It appears that it was by mere accident that Mr. Wilcox discovered the 
suitableness of the wood for this purpose. He got some of the wood through one of the many fine Cedars 
in the grounds of Warwick Castle having been blown down, when he tried his hand on it, and found it 
capable of being carved into the bold festoons of foliage above referred to, as well as into representations 
of birds, and even of insects; and it has this advantage, that it is perfectly secure from worms, from which 
most of the other soft woods, commonly used in carving, are so liable to suffer. 
Another instance of its application to the same purpose is also mentioned in the same journal 
(i. p. 782, 1840). “In the old mansion-house, near Camberwell, on the London road, belonging to 
Sir E. Smyth, Bart., and now used as a school, there is a small room (I think called the Cedar Parlour) 
with a Cedar wainscot, round the upper part of which a wreath of fruit and flowers, and in one part 
a hawk with wings expanded, are carved of Cedar, with all his usual skill and delicacy, by the celebrated 
Grinling Gibbons himself: ” but Dr. Lindley, in giving admission to the statement, qualifies it by the very 
just doubt whether the wood referred to can be the Cedar of Lebanon, because the tree was not intro¬ 
duced into England earlier than 1650, probably not earlier than 1680; at any rate it must have been very 
rare then; while Gibbons died in 1721. 
Cedar parlours were probably never common; but they seem at least to have been a thing that 
would have been liked if the wood had been procurable. Those who have read Richardson will 
remember the Cedar parlour in U ncle Selby’s house. A parlour is said to have been wainscoted with 
the timber of some of the Cedars at Whitton, which were raised from seed by the old Duke of Argyle 
in 1725 ; and at Cassiobury Park, near Watford, Herts, the seat of the Earl of Essex, “ Cedar Cottage,” 
erected for the steward of the estate, has its doors and principal woodwork made from the timber of 
some Cedars which were blown down on this estate in the year 1857. One Cedar parlour is spoken of as 
existing in an old house in Kent; but from the description of that wood it is certainly not the Cedar 
of Lebanon, being different in colour and smell, more like the Red Cedar {Juniperus virginiana) used 
by cabinet-makers for lining drawers and boxes. There is a coarse kind of Cypress common at Ber¬ 
muda, often called Cedar, that is sometimes brought to this country. The book-cases in the Library 
at Abbotsford were made of this wood. 
Dr. Pococke says : “ The wood does not differ from white deal in appearance, nor does it seem 
to be harder. It has a fine smell, but is not so fragrant as the Juniper of America, which is commonly 
called Cedar.” Varennes de Fenille, again, says that “the smell of the wood, so far from being fragrant, 
greatly resembles that of the Pine.” The latter considers that it is the lightest of the resinous woods, 
contains very little resin, has a coarse grain, and that the wood is neither so strong nor so durable as 
it has the reputation of being; and says that we cannot suppose that the temples of J erusalem and 
Ephesus were of the dimensions stated; or if they were, that the wood of the Cedar of Lebanon 
was used in their construction. 
The only proofs that he or Loudon give is the statement that the wood “ is very liable to warp 
and split in drying, on which account it does not hold nails well (a remark which was also made 
by Pliny), and that it is unfit for use except in large masses.” 
But while there is ample evidence of the sempiternal endurance of the Lebanon-grown Cedar, 
we are scarcely in a position as yet to give an opinion upon the English-grown timber. 
There are no means by which extreme durability in it can yet be proved. The results of the 
trial of young and green wood, even if unfavourable, could have little bearing upon the subject, and 
it has not been long enough introduced to make a fair test of old wood possible. But there is no 
denying 
