Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/503

 10 s. VIIL NOV. 23, loo?.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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voluminous literature which exists on the subject, but I find nothing to prove that chestnut may not have been used. These writers refer to the great difficulty of dis- tinguishing between oak and some kinds of chestnut. A competent authority on timber informs me that he considers the walls are of chestnut ; and the late Canon Isaac Taylor, who also happened to live in the next parish from the year 1829, and who was an excellent botanist and often in- spected the church, held that half the timbers were oak, and half chestnut.

The question can only be set at rest by examining sections of the trees. I had hoped that some portions cut off in 1849 might have been kept, but my inquiries have met, unfortunately, with a negative reply.

The roof at Ypres, whether of oak or chestnut, is certainly a fine one. I know it -well. HENRY TAYLOR.

Rusthall, Kent.

In regard to the letter MR. HENRY TAYLOR ^quotes as coming from the pen of a carpenter named Stoakes, of Rusthall, Kent, relative to the latter's experiences with old oak, I note that his name does not occur in Kelly's '* Dictionary of the Building Trades' under 'Rusthall, and the statements made are the opinions of an ill-informed man. He declares that old English oak is the hardest wood a carpenter has to tackle. In Ellis's "Modern Practical Carpentry' (1906) certainly one of the best authorities in ..existence we read :

"Of wood used in carpentry, greenheart (Ne,c- tandra Rodicei) is the hardest and heaviest; and for carpentry purposes, where this quality and strength are desired, it is unapproachable by any other wood, save ironwood."

Further, Mr. Stoakes observes that in work- ing some old oak he has found it " impos- sible to keep an edge upon his tools," which he has had to " continually sharpen." This happens thus. The average carpenter nowa- days mainly uses deal and other such soft woods. When upon comparatively rare occasions he finds oak upon his bench, he sharpens his planes, &c., upon the same bevel he has been accustomed to do for pine, &c., instead of upon the quicker slope the greater hardness of oak requires. The natural result is that the cutting edge, unable to bear the more severe strain, breaks away, and " the poor workman quarrels with his tools " !

The following is an illustration to the point. In 1874 I was engaged in the renovation of the fifteenth-century church

of St. John Baptist at Stowford (Devon). The rector (the late J. B. Wollocombe) was an exceptionally well-developed, muscular Christian, then in the prime of life. Further, he was a bit of an amateur carpenter. In the pursuit of the latter laudable hobby, his one trouble was his tools. These he con- tinually broke. " They are not made strong enough for a man like myself," he would remark. But the fact is that it was not the temper of the steel that was at fault : it was simply his own clumsiness.

MR. TAYLOR'S correspondent remarks further of " heart of oak " that " the older it gets, the harder it becomes." This is a curious statement. " Heart of oak " is, at best, a misleading expression, more poetical than anything else. Save when large beams are placed in situ, the actual heart is never used at all. For all high-class carpentry and joinery " quartered " oak is required. The actual heart itself is thrown away as worth- less (see Sutcliffe's ' Modern Carpenter and Joiner,' 1902). The heart is virtually nothing but pith, and has no lasting power. Oak, after it has been cut into boards and planks, takes many years to dry thoroughly ; but after the lapse of half a century it is as hard as ever it will be yea, even it it should exist for a thousand years. I have many fifteenth-century oak beams in my posses- sion, as well as scores of piles (of the same material) that in Norman days formed the foundations of the original bridge that spanned the Exe at Exeter. All alike are just as hard as but no harder than oak that has been felled and cut up for fifty years. Bog oak submerged for untold ages when it comes into the hands of the skilled craftsman, is as easily manipulated as any other.

The old story that " heart of oak " (or any other portion of the oak tree), after having been felled for centuries, is as " hard as iron," is altogether misleading nothing, in fact, but a myth. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

THE KING'S OLD BARGEHOUSE (10 S. viii. 167). Mary Adams, of the parish of Christ Church, Surrey, widow, by her will dated 29 Aug., 21 Geo. II., proved P.C.C. (96 Lisle) 11 April, 1749, leaves to a daughter of her granddaughter Elizabeth, wife of George Vaughan, feltmaker, on coming of age, money part secured by a mortgage from John Jones, deceased, to her late husband, of leasehold estate situate near the old bargehouse in the parish of Christ Church, and held under Mr. Thomas Boughton.