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Show ENGLISH OAK MOST DURABLE Specimens of It Have Been Known to Survive In Good Preservation for Centuries. The durability of English oak Is the preatest of any known forest timber, discoveries having been made that It Is preserved almost as well under water through centuries as it is when shielded by roofs In ancient castles. Professor Burnett of London possessed pos-sessed a piece of English oak from King John's palace at Eltham, perfectly per-fectly sound and strong, which can be traced hack for more than five hundred hun-dred years. The oaken shrine of Edward Ed-ward the Confessor Is more than eight hundred years old. One of the onken coronation chairs in Westminster abbey ab-bey has been there for more than five centuries. In Gloucester cathedral there are thirty-one stalls of rich tabernacle work executed In oak In the reign of Edward HI, and beautifully perfect. When the foundations of the old Savoy palace In London, built 700 years previously, were torn down, the piles, many of which were of oak, were found In a state of perfect soundness. A vessel, found In the river Bother, in iKeat. said to date back to the time of Kin Alfred, was found to be sound despite the fact that Its oaken keel had 'oeen burled In the mud. An oak boat was found near Brigg In an nl-raost nl-raost perfect condition, despite the fuct it was nearly two hundred years old-Detroit News. |