[To TII2 EDITOS 07 THE "Sracraroo."1 Sra,—Your contributor's article on
the oak, in connexion with the above, has an additional interest in that we may presume from the authority quoted—the Public Record Office—it is now definitely established that oak, and not chestnut (Castanea Vesca), was the timber used in the construction of the famous roof of Westminster Hall P That the question has been raised before is undoubted, owing, probably, to the strong resemblance existing between the timbers of the two species. Robert Hogg, in his Vegetable Kingdom, says in this connexion
" There is much similarity between the timber of the chestnut and that of the oak, and hence differences of opinion have arisen as to the material of which some old structures are composed. Such is the case with regard to the roof of Westminster Hall, formerly thought to be of oak, but now ascertained with consider- able accuracy to have been constructed of chestnut."
That Hogg was not alone in his belief is evidenced by your correspondent Mr. E. M. Prichard's quotation of Lord Avebury in the Spectator of May 16th. Again, Professor J. H. Middleton, in his article on " Wood Carving" in the Encyclopaedia Brita,anica, is evidently in some doubt on the point, for he says, speaking of this roof, that "it is cut out of enormous balks of oak or chestnut" It is interesting to note in this connexion that the chestnut is a tree capable of attaining to enormous dimensions, as, for instance, the well-known Chestnut of Mount Etna, the trunk of which, when measured by Brydone (I again quote Hogg), was two hundred and four feet in circumference.—I am, Sir, &c., Knight's Cross Lodge, M. Szmrsow. Newstead Abbey, Nottingham.
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