1748

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

Some antiquarians, however, state that the tabula; rotunda: were introducedinto this country by Stephen, and believe that the table in question wasmade by him, which in that case would diminish its age 600 years; leavingit, however, above seven centuries to boast of; enough to render it a mostvaluable and interesting monument. It has been perforated by many bullets,supposed to have been shot by Cromwell’s soldiers. (Grose and Hutchins .)The massive tables, paneled wainscots, and ceiling of Morton Hall, Cheshire;the roofs of Christ-Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, are finespecimens of old oak. In Gloucester Cathedral, also, are thirty-one stalls ofrich tabernacle work on cither side, little inferior in point of execution to theepiscopal throne at Exeter, or to the stalls at Ely; erected in the reign ofEdward III., and allowed to be among the finest pieces of carving in woodnow remaining in England of that early date. (Britton.') Of about equal agewere the carved figures of Edward III. and his Queen Phillippa, in the colle-giate church and hospital of St. Catherine, lately removed from the tower toSt. Catherine’s newly built church and hospital, in the Regent’s Park. Thescreens, stalls, seats, &c., in the old church were all of oak, beautifully carved,and very ancient; the old oaken pulpit, also, which now adorns the newstructure, was the donation of Sir Julius Csesar, a. D. 1621. The rich carvingsin oak which ornamented the King’s room in Stirling Castle were executedabout 300 years ago, and are many of them still in good preservation in thecollections of the curious. In digging away the foundation of the old SavoyPalace, London, which was built upwards of 650 years since, the whole ofthe piles, many of which were of oak, were found in a state of perfectsoundness, as, also, was the planking which covered the pile heads. (Tredgold.)Buff'on mentions the soundness of the piles of the bridge which the EmperorTrajan built across the Danube; one of which, when taken up, was foundto be petrified to the depth of three quarters of an inch, but the rest of thewood was little different from its ordinary state. And of the durability of oaktimber, the oldest wooden bridge of which we have any account, viz. that onefamous from its defence by Horatius Codes, and which existed at Rome inthe reign of Ancus Martius, 500 years before Christ, might be given asanother example. The piles which supported the buttresses, and immenseuncouth starlings which confined the waterway and so greatly disfiguredold London Bridge, were some of them of oak; and I [Professor Burnet]have a specimen of one, which is far from being in a rotten state: and thestill older piles on which the bridge piers rested were also in a very strongand sound condition : nay, those stakes which it is said the ancient Britonsdrove into the bed of the Thames to impede the progress of Julius Cassar,near Oatlands, in Surrey, some of which have been removed for examination,have withstood the destroyer time nearly 2000 years.” (Amcen. Quer., fol. 7.)In Cambden’s time, the place where these stakes were found was calledCowey Stakes. In the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. ii. pi. 7., is a sketch ofan old wooden church at Greenstead, near Ongar, the ancient Aungare, inEssex. The inhabitants have a tradition, that the corpse of a dead king oncerested in this church ; and it is believed to have been built as a temporary re-ceptacle for the body of St. Edmund (who was slain A. D. 946), and subse-quently converted into a parish church. The nave, or body, which rendersit so remarkable, is composed of the trunks of oaks, about 1 ft. 6 in. in dia-meter, split through the centre, and roughly hewn at each end, to let them intoa sill at the bottom, and a plank at the top, where they are fastened by w'oodenpegs. The north wall is formed of these half oaks, set side by side as closelyas their irregular edges will permit. In the south wall there is an interval leftfor the entrance; and the ends, which formerly were similar, have now to theone a brick chancel, and to the other a wooden belfry, attached. The originalbuilding is 29 ft. 9 in. long, by 14 ft. wide, and 5 ft. 6 in. high on the sides, whichsupported the primitive roof. The oaks on the northern side have sufferedmore from the weather than those on the southern side; but both are stillso strong, and internally so sound, that, although “ corroded and worn by