230 DRIPPING OF TREES. 



wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, or 

 sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel 

 anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of 

 the limb. Against this accident, to which they were 

 continually liable, our provident forefathers always 

 kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medi- 

 cated, would maintain its virtue for ever. A shrew - 

 ash was made thus * : Into the body of the tree, a 

 deep hole was bored with an auger, and a poor de- 

 voted 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 consecration 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 remon- 

 strances of the by-standers, who interceded in vain 

 for its preservation, urging its power and efficacy, 

 and alleging that it had been 



" Religione patrum multos servata per annos." 

 With reverential awe preserved for years. 



JLJ 



LETTER LXXI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Feb. 7> 1776. 



DEAR SIR, 



IN heavy fogs, on elevated situations especially, 

 trees are perfect alembics : and no one that has not 



* For a similar practice, see PLOT'S Staffordshire. 



