198 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORWE. 
ash was made thus* :—Into the body of the tree a deep hole was 
bored with an auger, and a poor devoted shrew-mouse was thrust in 
alive, and plugged in, no doubt, with several quaint incantations 
long since forgotten. As the ceremonies necessary for such a con- 
secration are no longer understood, all succession is at an end, and 
no such tree is known to subsist in the manor, or hundred. 
As to that on the Plestor 
‘* The late vicar stubb’d and burnt it,” 
when he was way-warden, regardless of the remonstrances of the 
bystanders, who interceded in vain for its preservation, urging its 
power and efficacy, and alleging that it had been 
** Religione patrum multos servata per annos.”” 
I am, &c, 
* For a similar practice, see Plot’s Staffordshire. 
