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form acute angles with it : but as they begin 

 to lengthen, they generally take an eafy {weep j 

 and the loofenefs of the leaves correfponding 

 with the lightnefs of the fpray, the whole 

 forms an elegant depending foliage. Nothing 

 can have a better effect, than an old afh, 

 hanging from the comer of a wood, and bring- 

 ing off the heavinefs of the other foliage, with 

 its loofe pendent branches. And yet in fome 

 foils, I have feen the afh lofe much of its 

 beauty in the decline of age. It's foliage 

 becomes rare, and meagre ; and its branches, 

 inftead of hanging loofely, often ftart away in 

 difagreeable forms. In fhoit, the afh often 

 lofes that grandeur and beauty in old age, 

 which the generality of trees, and particularly 

 the oak, preferve, till a late period of their 

 exiftence. 



The afh alfo, on another account, falls 

 under the difpleafure of the pic~hirefque eye. 

 It's leaf is much tenderer, than that of the 

 oak, and fooner receives impreffion from the 

 winds, and froft. Inftead of contiibuting its 

 tint therefore, in the wane of the year among 

 the many-coloured offspring of the woods, 

 it fhrinks from the blaft, drops its leaf, and 

 in each fcene where it predominates, leaves 



wide 



