130 ON THE OLD AND REMARKABLE ASH TREES IN SCOTLAND. 



remains of ash trees been found in any of the peat-bogs or 

 morasses from which, from time to time, roots and stumps 

 of former sylva have been exhumed, nor in any deep excava- 

 tions made in other soils, nor in the timbers of old buildings in 

 Scotland. This argument, however, is easily met by the objec- 

 tion, that in none of such situations is it the least likely that 

 ash tree timber would be found. In the first place, it is well 

 knowm that in peat-bog soil or wet morasses ash will not grow ; 

 in the next place, the nature of tlie tree is to throw out shallow 

 or surface-feeding roots, so that it could not be looked for in 

 deep excavations ; and, as to its use for constructive purposes, 

 its wood is quite unsuited for such purposes, and too valuable 

 for use in other respects, as, for example, for agricultural 

 implements and tools, to admit of its being used for beams 

 of houses. It may therefore be safely assumed that the ash is 

 one of our indigenous forest trees in Scotland, as, from the 

 earliest records, we find it in use, both as supplying material for 

 the deadly instruments of warfare, and for the peaceful imple- 

 ments of amculture. 



In former times, curious superstitions were attached to this 

 tree. The Scandinavians introduced the ash into their mytho- 

 logy, and their Edda represents the court of the gods as held 

 under a mighty ash, whose summit reaches to heaven, wdiile its 

 branches overshadow the entire earth, and its roots penetrate 

 to the infernal regions. Serpents are twined round its trunk. 

 Man, according to the Edda, was formed from the wood of the 

 ash tree. Pliny and Dioscorides both notice it as being repug- 

 nant to serpents, and as a cure for their bite. In our own land, 

 at no remote period, country people had a superstition, that 

 if they spHt young ash trees, and made ruptured children pass 

 through the cleft, they would be cured. A curious tree is 

 figured in " The Gentleman's Magazine " for 1804, p. 909, which 

 was said to have been so used. It grew near Birmingham, and 

 showed two trunks, parted, and (juite distinct, at a short distance 

 from the root, and afterwards joined again. It had been split to 

 cure rupture in a child of a neighbouring farmer, and it is sup- 

 posed that the two parts thus separated became covered with 

 bark, and so formed two trunks at this point. Trees so used 

 were preserved with great care, for the belief was, that if the 

 tree was felled the rupture returned, mortified, and killed the 

 person formerly cured ' Probably the " Glannnis " tree at Castle 

 Huntly, in Perthshire, which is noticed in Dr Walker's " Cata- 

 logue of Old Trees," was a tree so used, — the word " glammis," 

 in nortli country dialect, signifying " pincers " or tongs. This 

 tree, from inquiry, is now gone. In 1812 it measured at 3 feet 

 from the ground, 17 feet in circumference; and at the root, 

 27 feet. It fell of natural decay in 1864. Another super- 



