MOUNTAIN ASH. 327 



English ancestors. In a statute of Henry VIII., you have it mentioned; and 

 there is no churchyard in Wales without a mountain ash tree planted in it, as the 

 yew trees are in the churchyards of England. So, in a certain day in the year, 

 everybody in Wales, religiously wears a cross made of the wood ; and the tree 

 is, by some authors, called Fraxiuus cambro-brilaunica." 



The largest tree of this species on record, in Britam, and probably on the globe, 

 IS at Old Montrose, in Forfarshire, which, at sixty-five years after planting, had 

 attained a height of fifty feet, with a triuik two feet and ten inches in diameter, 

 and an ambitus or spread of branches of forty feet. 



The introduction of the Pyrus aucuparia into the British colonies of North 

 America, probably dates back to the early periods of their settlements. It is 

 much cultivated for ornament within the environs of Boston, New York, Phila- 

 delphia, and other places in the United States, where there are trees to be found 

 from twenty to thirty feet in height, which have been planted from forty to sixty 

 years; but owing to the depredations of several species of borers hereafter men- 

 tioned, this tree does not often surpass that age. 



Poetical and Legoidanj Allusions. In ancient days, when superstition held 

 that place in society which dissipation and impiety hold in the more advanced 

 stages of civilization, the mountain ash was regarded as an object of great vener- 

 ation. Gilpin, in his ' Forest Scenery." in speaking of this tree, says, that often 

 in his time, " a stump of the mountain ash was found in some old burying-place, 

 or near the circle of a Druid's temple, the wtes of which were formerly pertbrmed 

 under its shade." On this passage. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder observes that, "a 

 branch of the roan-tree is still considered good against evil infiuences in the high- 

 lands of Scotland, and in Wales, where it is often hung up over doorways, and 

 in stables and cow-houses, to neutralize the wicked spells of witches and war- 

 locks." And Lightfoot, in his " Flora Scotica," says, "It is probable that this 

 tree was in high esteem with the Druids; for it may to this day be observed to 

 grow more frequently than any other in the neighbourhood of those Druidical 

 circles of stones, so often seen in the north of Britain ; and the superstitious still 

 continue to retain a great veneration for it, which was undoubtedly handed down 

 to them from early antiquity. They believe that any small part of this tree, car- 

 ried about them, will prove a sovereign charm against all the dire effects of 

 enchantments and witchcraft. Their cattle, also, as well as themselves, are sup- 

 posed to be preserved by it from evil ; for the dairy-maid wi.ll not forget to drive 

 them to the shearlings, or summer pasture, with a rod of the rowan-tree, which 

 she carefully lays up over the door of the sheal-boothy, or summer-house, and 

 drives them home again with the same. In Strathspey they make, on the 1st of 

 May, a hoop with the wood of this tree, and in the evening and morning cause 

 the sheep and lambs to pass through it." That a belief in the supernatural vir- 

 tues of this tree still prevails in some parts of Yorkshire, as appears from the fol- 

 lowing anecdote, related by Waterton, author of the celebrated " Wanderings," 

 in the Magazine of Natural History, we have not the slightest doubt: "In the 

 village of Walton," says he, "I have two small tenants. The name of one is 

 James Simpson, and that of the other Sally HoUoway ; and Sally's stands a little 

 before the house of Simpson. Some three months ago, I overtook Simpson on 

 the turnpike-road, and I asked him if his cow was getting better, for his son had 

 told me that she liad fallen sick. 'She's coming on surprisingly, sir,' quoth he; 

 the last time the cow-doctor came to see her, " Jem," said he to me, looking ear- 

 nestly at old Sally's house; "Jem," said he, "mind and keep your cow-house 

 door shut before the sun goes down, otherwise I won't answer for what may hap- 

 pen to the cow." ' Ay, ay, my lad,' said I, I understand your meaning; but I 

 am up to the old slut, and I dety her to do me any harm now !' And what has 

 old Sally been doing to you, James? said I. ' ^Vlly, sir,' replied he, 'we alJ 



