gives in chapter xi. many proofs in support of his opinion that winter-felled oak is better than spring-felled; though the practice he recommends was to bark the trees standing, and fell them in the succeeding winter, a custom which is still followed in some parts in England. He also states, on page 73, that having carefully examined and compared many pieces of both winter- and spring- or summer-felled logs, he found almost invariably that the winter-cut timber, after being a few years in store, was in better condition than that which had been cut in the spring. "The winter-felled logs were sounder, less rent by shakes, and the centres or early growths generally showed less of incipient decay than the spring-felled."
So much has been written about the timber of the oak that it seems unnecessary to go into very great detail with regard to this subject, especially as this timber, of which little is now required for the navy, is being ousted by iron and by cheaper imported timber from many of its former uses, and is of far less value than formerly; but though at the present time English oak is out of fashion, there is no doubt that such durable and beautiful wood must always have a considerable value to those who do not sacrifice durability to cheapness, and who have patience to wait until it has been properly seasoned, which requires from two to six years according to the thickness of the plank.
There are so many proofs of its everlasting character in the form of roofs and in the old timbered buildings which are common in Cheshire, and of which so many beautiful illustrations are given in Country Life, that I need not repeat them, but an extraordinary instance of its longevity when exposed to the weather was pointed out to me by the late Lord Arundell of Wardour in the ruins of Wardour Castle. This building, according to an account of it published in The Antiguary, November 23, 1873, was inhabited before the reign of Edward III., and was besieged and sacked by the Parliamentary army in the reign of Charles I., and blown up by its owner, Lord Arundell, in 1644, rather than allow it to remain in the hands of the enemy. An oak lintel, which must therefore have been exposed to the weather for 260 years, still remained in situ in 1903, and as far as I could see from below was not much decayed.
In a paper by W. Atkinson[1] it is said that during the last thirty years he had taken every opportunity of procuring specimens of wood from old buildings, and particularly what the carpenters called chestnut, but never in a single instance had he seen a piece of chestnut, the wood so called being always that of Q. sessiliflora, mistaken for chestnut from a deficiency of the flower or silver grain. He goes on to say: "The roof of Westminster Hall has been said to be chestnut; while it was under repair I procured specimens from different parts of the roof, the whole of them were oak, and chiefly the Q. sessiliflora. Most of the black oak from trees dug out of the ground I have found to be of the same kind. From finding the wood of the oldest buildings about London to be chiefly of the Q. sessilifiora, I should suppose that some centuries ago the chief part of the natural woods were of that kind; at present the greater part of the oak grown in the south of England is Q. pedunculata. Specimens of oaks that I have procured from different parts of
- ↑ Trans. Hort. Soc. Second Series, i. p. 336 (1835).
