During a great part of the time occupied in the repairs of the church, the weather was very rainy. The arches of the vaults having been turned before the roof was slated, the rain water saturated the partly decayed oak beams. The flooring and joists, composed of fresh timber, were laid on the vaulting before it was dry, coming in contact at the same time with the old oak timber, which was abundantly supplied with the seeds of decay, stimulated by moisture, the bad atmosphere of an ill-contrived burial-place, and afterwards by heat from the stoves constantly in use. All these circumstances account satisfactorily for the extraordinary and rapid growth of the fungi. Many instances might be mentioned of English oak being affected with dry rot, under particular circumstances. There was a great deal at the Duke of Devonshire’s, at Chiswick, about 60 years ago. Needy builders, who work for contract, sometimes use American oak, and call it wainscot: it is a bad substitute for wainscot, being very liable to warp and to be affected with dry rot. “I know of one public building,” observed the late Mr. Henry Warburton, M.P., “in which it has been introduced, and, I suppose, paid for under that name.” Another serious instance of the decay of timber from rot occurred some time since in Old St. Pancras Church, London. When the dry rot made its appearance, it spread with amazing rapidity. Sometimes in the course of a night, a fungus of about the consistence of newly-fallen snow, and of a yellowish-white unwholesome colour, would be found to have spread over a considerable surface. The fungus was without shape, but in some cases it rose to a height of 2, 3, or 4 inches above the planks or other surfaces on which it grew. It could be cut with a knife, leaving a clear edge on each side, and there did not seem to be any covering or membrane over the outer or under surface. The smell of those matters was unpleasant, and seemed like the concentration of the smell which had pervaded the church for so long a time before; and, in a short time, beams, planks of flooring, railings, &c., were reduced to rottenness: the colour changed, and a heavy dark-brown dust fell, and represented the once solid timber. On making an examination with a view of discovering the cause of the attack, it was found that in the graveyard, near the church, there were graves, and several vaults: there were also vaults in the inside of the church. Most of them were filled, or nearly so, with water, which had run from the overcrowded graves.