328 Hematics on the Fall 



The Ivy (of greater thickness than a man's thigh), which, 

 springing up directly on the opposite side, clasped the trunk, 

 and acted like a backstay to keep it in its erect position ; the 

 ivy and the ash thus mutually supporting each other. More- 

 over, the ivy, towards the very top of the tree, formed so large 

 and massive a head of persistent foliage, as to occasion the 

 wind to have additional power against it, and cause the vessel, 

 as it were, to carry too great a press of sail. In order to give 

 some idea of the magnificence of this individual specimen of 

 ivy, the finest, perhaps, on the whole, out of many ex- 

 traordinary fine ones on the premises, I may mention that 

 the men employed to cut up and clear away the windfall 

 calculated that there was at least enough of the evergreen to 

 form a good wa^on-load or more, which now, alas ! served 

 no better purpose than to feed the sheep, to whom the shrub 

 affords a favourite and wholesome repast. But to what purpose, 

 you will ask, is this lamentation over my private loss, which 

 can hardly be a subject of the slightest interest to you or any 

 of your readers ? 1 have, however, a motive in recording the 

 circumstance, over and above the, perhaps, pardonable satis- 

 faction I might naturally feel in offering a tribute to the 

 memory of a departed favourite. All the catastrophes of 

 nature are more or less interesting, were it only that they 

 serve oftentimes to bring to light her hidden treasures, and 

 present us with objects which otherwise would have escaped 

 observation. An accidental landslip, for example, or the dis- 

 ruptureof an overhanging cliff, discloses the fossils and minerals 

 embedded beneath the earth's surface. The bursting of a dam, 

 and the consequent draining of the waters which were con- 

 fined by it, expose to view the aquatic plants and animals 

 which abound in that element. So, also (without multiplying 

 examples), from the fall of my venerable ivy-mantled ash, may 

 be gleaned, if I mistake not, some scraps and odd ends of 

 natural history, not quite devoid of interest, perhaps, to others 

 a.i well as to myself. 



In the first place, if any doubt could remain upon the subject, 

 I had, on this occasion, an incontestable proof of the injurious 

 effects o£jy sno / 0a Bsvi | 9f j u ■.., , on ori erf* ni 



" The ivy which had hid the princely trunk, 

 And suck'd the verdure out on 't." 



The decay of the tree, I feel no hesitation in believing, had, 

 in some degree at least, been hastened and promoted by the 

 close and pinching embraces of the parasite; the stems of 

 which were tightly laced and plaited together, and in some 

 places literally'tied in hard knots round the smaller branches 

 ii 1o alfcp ni Jud , "0" <* on 5 ' 



