294 



ASH-WEDNESDAY ASHES. 



north of Asia, ami grows in u light, springy (but not 

 marshy) soil, especially if marly orcalcarious. When 

 planli d in l>gs, it contributes much to drain tlirm. 

 It will prow in almost any situation, even in hard clay 

 and dry gravel ; though poor, dry, sandy ground is 

 fatal to it. Its smooth, stately stem rises to a great 

 height, with spreading, or, rather, drooping branches, 

 with winged leaves, the leaflets in four or five pairs, 

 with an odd one serrated, and without foot-stalks, and 

 the flowers without petals. Of late years, this 

 valuable tree has been much planted in several parts 

 of England. The timber, which lias the rare ad- 

 vantage of being nearly as good when young as when 

 old, is white, and so hard and tough, as generally to 

 be esteemed next in value to oak. It is much used 

 by coach-makers, wheel-wrights and cart-wrights ; 

 and is made into ploughs, axle-trees, felloes of wheels, 

 harrows, ladders, and other implements of husbandry. 

 It is likewise used by ship-builders for various pur- 

 poses, and by coopers for the hoops of tubs and 

 barrels. Where, by frequent cutting, the wood has 

 become knotty, irregular and veined, it is in much 

 request for cabinet-work, by mechanics in Europe. 

 As fuel, this tn*e burns better, whilst wet and green, 

 than any other wood. The finest ash-tree, perhaps, 

 in Britain is to be found in Bonhill churchyard, Dum- 

 bartonshire. Its trunk is about nine feet high, and 

 where smallest upwards of eighteen feet in circum- 

 ference. Of the three principal arms into which it 

 branches, the largest is eleven, and the smallest near 

 ten feet in circumference. The branches spread in 

 every direction with uncommon regularity, covering 

 an area of nearly 100 feet in diameter, and the general 

 aspect is singularly venerable and majestic There 

 are no data from which its nge. can be conjectured. 

 Nearly a hundred years ago, it was noticed by Mar- 

 sham of Si ration near Norwich, a celebrated planter, 

 as one of the first ashes he had seen ; and a tendency 

 to decay in some of the boughs seems to indicate that 

 it has stood for several centuries. 



ASH-WKDNESDAY ; the first day of Lent, a fast forty 

 days long, which the Catholic church orders to be 

 kept before the feasfr of Easter. It derives its name 

 from the ancient and still existing custom of putting 

 ashes upon the head, as a symbol of humble repen- 

 tance for sin. It was formerly, and, to a certain ex- 

 tent, is still the custom in Catholic countries, to con- 

 fess on Ash-Wednesday, to chastise one's self during 

 Lent, and to partake of the Lord's supper at Easter. 

 In Rome, the spectacle is highly impressive, when 

 all the people, after giving themselves up to every 

 species of gayety during the carnival, till twelve 

 o'clock on Tuesday, go, on Ash- Wednesday morning 

 into church, where the officiating priest puts ashes on 

 their heads, with the words, " Dust thou art, and unto 

 dust thou slialt return." To throw ashes on the head, 

 as an expression of humiliation and repentance, was 

 an old custom of the Jews. 



ASHANTEE ; a warlike nation of negroes, on and 

 near the Gold Coast of Guinea, in the vicinity of the 

 British settlement, Cape Coast castle, at Sierra Leone, 

 with which we have become acquainted by Bowdich's 

 Mission to Ashantee (London, 1819), and Jos. 

 Dupuis' Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 

 1824), as well as by their bloody war with the British, 

 in 1824, in which the governor of the above-men- 

 tioned British colony, general M'Carthy, lost his life. 

 The kingdom of the Ashantees was founded, about 

 100 years ago, by a successful conqueror, with a kind 

 of feudal constitution. It extends from 6 to 9 N. 

 lat., and from 0" to 4 W. Ion. to the river Volta. 

 The residence of the king is Coomassie. The law 

 l>ennits Kim to have 3333 wives, a mystical number, 

 on which the welfare of the nation rests. His ser- 

 vants, above 100 in number, are slaughtered on his 



tomb, that he may arrive in the infernal regions with 

 a suite bccon-ing his nink. Several negro states, 

 under their own princes, are dependent on him. 

 Ashantee itself (14,OOO square miles, with 1,000,000 

 inhabitants) forms a part of Wangara, which contains 

 two other states, Dahomy, and the powerful Benin, 

 whose king can lead 200,000 men to war. The fer- 

 tile Benin is more advanced in ci\ ili/.alion than Ash- 

 antee. The latter, however, di.-play much taste and 

 'elegance in their architecture; they also dye with 

 skill, and manufacture cloths of exquisite fineness and 

 brilliancy of colour. 



ASHIIORNK; a market town and parish in Derbyshire. 

 The town is pleasantly situated in a rich valley on the 

 eastern side of the Dove, over which is a stone hriiigc. 

 It is divided into two parts by a rivulet, called Uie 

 Henmore, the most southern of which division is 

 termed Compton, the ancient Campdene. It has a 

 considerable trade in cheese and malt, and many 

 horses and cattle are sold at its fairs. Much lace is 

 made here, and the iron and cotton factories in the 

 neighbourhood employ a great many persons. Popu- 

 lation of town and parish, 4,884. 



ASH BURTON ; a market town and parish in Devon- 

 shire. The town is situated in a valley, surrounded 

 by hills, about half a mile from the river Dart, and 

 consists principally of one long street, through which 

 is the high road from London to Plymouth. There 

 are several productive tin and copper-mines in the 

 vicinity, and an extensive manufactory of serge in the 

 town ; and the Tuesday market is held chiefly for 

 wool and yarn. Population of town and parish, 4,165. 



AsiiKY-DE-LA-ZoccH ; a market town and parish in 

 Leicestershire, situated in a fertile valley on the bor- 

 ders of Derbyshire, through which runs the small 

 river Gilwiskaw. It takes its distinctive appellation 

 from the ancient family of the Zouches, who came 

 into possession of the manor in the reign of Henry 

 III. It subsequently devolved to the crown, which 

 granted it to the noble family of Hastings, in right of 

 whom the marquis of that till? possesses it at present. 

 The town consists of one principal street, from which 

 branch several smaller ones. The manufactures es- 

 tablished here are chiefly those of cotton and woollen 

 stockings, and hats. There is likewise a good trade 

 in malt ; and the fairs are celebrated for the wile of 

 fine horses and cattle. The ruins of Ashby castle, 

 of great note in former times, and which received 

 Mary queen of Scots as a prisoner, and her son 

 James and his queen, as guests, are still visible. It 

 was built by the lord Hastings so liastily executed 

 by Richard III. ; and dismantled during the civil 

 wars in the reign of Charles I. Population of parish, 

 4,727. 



ASHES ; the fixed residuum, of a whitish or whitish- 

 gray colour, which remains after the entire combus- 

 tion of organic bodies, and is no longer able to sup-' 

 port combustion. The constituent parts of ashes are 

 different, according to the different bodies from which 

 they originate. The ashes of vegetables consist 

 chiefly or earthy and saline ingredients, the latter <> 

 which may be separated by washing, and are called 

 vegetable alkali. (See Alkali.) The more compact 

 the texture of the wood is, the more alkali it ailonls-. 

 Some herbs, however, yield more than drees, and the. 

 branching fern the most. The more the plants have 

 been dried, the less they produce. The vegetable 

 alkali is always combined with carbonic acidT The 

 greater, therefore, the heat by which the ashes are 

 produced, and the more continued and powerful the 

 calcination of the alkali, the more caustic will it he. 

 It can only be entirely purified from foreign substan- 

 ces by crystallization. (See Potash.) Ofquite a dif- 

 ferent quality are animal ashes, particularly those 

 obtained from bone. After calcination, it retains its 



