d the joyn'd-stools,
Beech made the board, the platters, and the bowls.{77:1}

With it the turner makes dishes, trays, rimbs for buckets, and other
utensils, trenchers, dresser-boards, &c. likewise for the wheeler,
joyner, for large screws, and upholster for sellyes, chairs, stools,
bedsteads, &c. for the bellows-maker, and husbandman his shovel and
spade-graffs; floates for fishers nets instead of corks, is made of its
bark; for fuel, billet, bavin and coal, tho' one of the least lasting:
Not to omit even the very shavings for the fining of wines. Peter
Crescentius writes, that the ashes of beech, with proper mixture, is
excellent to make glass with. If the timber lie altogether under water,
'tis little inferior to elm, as I find it practised and asserted by
shipwrights: Of old they made their _vasa vindemiatoria_ and _corbes
messoriae_ (as we our pots for strawberries) with the rind of this beech,
nay, and vessels to preserve wine in, and that curiously wrought cup
which the shepherd in the Bucolicks wagers withal, was engraven by
Alcimedon upon the bark of this tree: And an happy age it seems:

........No wars did men molest,
When only beechen-bowls were in request.{78:1}

Of the thin _lamina_ or scale of this wood (as our cutlers call it) are
made scabards for swords, and band-boxes, superinduc'd with thin leather
or paper, boxes for writings, hat-cases, and formerly book-covers. I
wonder we cannot split it our selves, but send into other countries for
such trifles. In the cavities of these trees, bees much delight to hive
themselves: Yet for all this, you would not wonder to hear me deplore
the so frequent use of this wood, if you did consider that the industry
of France furnishes that country for all domestick utensils with
excellent wallnut; a material infinitely preferable to the best beech,
which is indeed good only for shade and for the fire, as being brittle,
and exceedingly obnoxious to the worm, where it lies either dry, or wet
and dry, as has been noted; but being put ten days in water, it will
exceedingly resist the worm: To which, as I said, it is so obnoxious,
that I wish the use of it were by a law, prohibited all joyners,
cabinet-makers, and such as furnish tables, chairs, bed-steads, cofers,
screws, &c. They have a way to black and polish it, so as to render it
like ebony, and with a mixture of soot and urine, imitate the wall-nut;
but as the colour does not last, so nor does the woo