68 THE ASH. 



the scholar, who made use of the inner bark to write on, 

 before the invention of paper. The carpenter, wheel- 

 wright, and cartwright find it excellent for plows, axle- 

 trees, wheel-rings, and harrows ; it makes good oars, blocks 

 for pulleys, and sheffs, as seamen name them : for drying 

 herrings no wood is like it, and the bark is good for the 

 tanning of nets ; and, like the Elm (for the same property 

 of not being apt to split or scale), is excellent for tenons 

 and mortises ; also for the cooper, turner, and thatcher ; 

 nothing is like it for our garden palisade hedges, hop- 

 yards, poles and spars, handles and stocks for tools, spade- 

 trees, &c. In summer, the husbandman cannot be with- 

 out the Ash for his carts, ladders, and other tackling, from 

 the pike, spear, and bow, to the plow ; for of Ash were 

 they formerly made, and therefore reckoned amongst 

 those woods which, after long tension, have a natural 

 spring, and recover their position, so as in peace and war 

 it is a wood in highest request. In short, so useful and 

 profitable is this tree, next to the Oak, that every prudent 

 lord of a manor should employ one acre of ground with 

 Ash to every twenty acres of other land, since in as many 

 years it would be more worth than the land itself." But, 

 we may add, it should be planted in sheltered situations, 

 where the soil is moderately dry. " Some Ash is curiously 

 cambleted and veined, so differently from other timber, 

 that our skilful cabinet-makers prize it equal with Ebony, 

 and give it the name of green Ebony, which their cus- 

 tomers pay well for ; and when our woodmen light upon 

 it, they may make what money they will of it." " Lastly, 

 the white and rotten dotard part composes the ground for 

 our gallants' sweet powder j and the truncheons make the 

 third sort of most durable coal, and is, of all others, the 

 sweetest of our forest fuelling, and the fittest for ladies' 

 chambers ; it will burn even whilst it is green, and may 

 be reckoned amongst the kinds of wood which burn with- 

 out smoke." 1 



1 Evelyn's Sylva. 



