Note 467 — Chapter XI

We have also a record of the discovery in England of two very ancient oak boats of considerable size. The first was found in 1822, in a deserted bed of the River Rother, near Matham, in Kent, and has been fully described in the Archæol. vol. xx. p. 553. This boat, which was sixty-three feet long by fifteen feet broad, appears to have been half-decked, and to have had at least one mast. It had been caulked with moss. The second was found in 1833, at North Stoke, near Arundel, in what was formerly a creek running into the River Arun. This boat, which was made of the half of a single oak-tree, hollowed out like a canoe, was thirty-five feet four inches long, and four feet six inches broad. It is now preserved in the British Museum, having been presented to that institution by the Earl of Egremont.—Vide Archæol. vol. xxvi.