ROSACER. 249 
_ glory of our once English ancestors. In a statute of Henry VIII. you have it men. 
tioned ; and there is no churchyard in Wales without a Mountain Ash tree planted in 
it, as the yew-trees are in the churchyards in 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 Fraxinus Cambro-Britannica.” 
In Germany fowlers bait springes or nooses of hair with the berries of this tree, 
which they hang in the woods to entice fieldfares and redwings: hence the specific 
name Aucuparia. Infused in water, the berries make an acid drink somewhat resem- 
bling perry. In the ancient days of superstition, the Mountain-ash was invested with 
peculiar charms, and we find many of them growing in the neighbourhood of Druidical 
remains. Gerarde writes: “The leaves of this tree are of so great vertue against 
serpents, that they dare not so much as touch the morning and evening shadows of the 
tree, but shun them afar off, as Pliny reports (Let. 16, cap. 13). He also aflirmeth, that 
the serpent being penned in with boughs laid round about, will sooner run into the fire, 
if any be there, than come neere the boughs of the Ash ; and that the Ash floureth 
before the serpents appeare, and doth not cast his leaves before they be gon againe: 
We write, saith he, upon experience, that if the serpent be set within a circle of fire and 
the branches, the serpent will sooner run into the fire than into the boughes. Itisa 
wonderfull courtesie in nature that the Ash should floure before the serpents appeare» 
and not cast his leaves before they be gon againe.” Gerarde adds: “ The wood is 
profitable for many things, being highly exalted by Homer and by Achilles’ speare, as 
Pliny writeth.” Poets tell us that the Amazons of old formed their spears from the 
wood of the Mountain-ash. In more modern times the Rowan has been considered the 
antidote to witchcraft, and of greater efficacy even than the St. John’s wort. It was 
planted before Highland houses to protect the inmates from the evil eye. Lightfoot 
writes : “ They considered that any part of this tree carried about with them will prove 
a sovereign charm against all the dire effects of enchantment or witchcraft. Their cattle 
also, as well as themselves, are supposed to be preserved by it from evil ; for the dairy- 
maid will not forget to drive them to the shealings or summer pastures with a rod of the 
Rowan-tree, which she carefully lays up over the poor of the sheal, boothy, or summer- 
house, and drives them home again with the same.’ 
In Strathspey they make on the Ist 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. The pro- 
gress of education has in a great measure put an end to these superstitions ; but in the 
wildest part of the Grampians the old Mountain-ash is still regarded with reverential feel- 
ings by the mountaineers. Some stanzas of a very old song speak of the supposed power 
of this venerated tree against witchcraft :— 
“Their spells were vain ; the boys return’d 
To the queen in sorrowful mood, 
Crying that ‘witches have no power 
Where there is roan-tree wood.’” 
The last line of this stanza is thought to throw some light on a line in Shakespeare’ s 
tragedy of “ Macbeth,” where the witch is relating her adventure with the sailor's 
wife :— 
“ A sailor's wife had chesnuts in her lap, 
And mounched, and mounched, and mounched. 
Give me, quoth I. 
Aroint thee, witch, the rump-fed ronyon cries.” 
VOL. III. 2K 
