vicinity of the
Protestant cathedral; St Finbar's ecclesiastical foundation attracting
many students and votaries. In the 9th century the town was frequently
pillaged by the Northmen. According to the _Annals of the Four Masters_
a fleet burned Cork in 821, in 846 the Danes appear to have been in
possession of the town, for a force was collected to demolish their
fortress; and in 1012 Cork again fell in flames. The Danes then appear
to have founded the new city on the banks of the Lee as a trading
centre. It was anciently surrounded with a wall, an order for the
reparation of which is found so late as 1748 in the city council books
(which date from 1610). Submission and homage were made to Henry II. on
his arrival in 1172, and subsequently the English held the town for a
long period against the Irish, by constant and careful watch. Cork
showed favour to Perkin Warbeck in 1492, and its mayor was hanged in
consequence. In 1649 it surrendered to Cromwell, and in 1689 to the earl
of Marlborough after five days' siege, when Henry, duke of Grafton, was
mortally wounded. Cork was a borough by prescription, and successive
charters were granted to it from the reign of Henry II. onward. By a
charter of Edward IV. the lord mayor of Cork was created admiral of the
port, and this office is manifested in a triennial ceremony in which the
mayor throws a dart over the harbour.

See C. Smith, _Ancient and Present State of the County and City of
Cork_ (1750), edited by R. Day and W. A. Copinger (Cork, 1893); C. B.
Gibson, _History of the City and County of Cork_ (London, 1861); M. F.
Cusack, _History of the City and County of Cork_, 1875.

CORK (perhaps through Sp. _corcha_ from Lat. _cortex_, bark, but
possibly connected with _quercus_, oak), the outer layer of the bark of
an evergreen species of oak (_Quercus Suber_). The tree reaches the
height of about 30 ft., growing in the south of Europe and on the North
African coasts generally; but it is principally cultivated in Spain and
Portugal. The outer layer of bark in the cork oak by annual additions
from within gradually becomes a thick soft homogeneous mass, possessing
those compressible and elastic properties upon which the economic value
of the material chiefly depends. The first stripping of cork from young
trees takes place when they are from fifteen to twenty years of age. The
yield, which is rough, unequal and woody in texture, is called virgin
cork, and is useful