The Natural History of Se I borne 277 



ash whose twigs or branches, when gently applied to the limbs 

 of cattle, will immediately relieve the pains which a beast 

 suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over the part 

 affected ; for it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is of so bane- 

 ful and deleterious a nature, that 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. 1 Against this accident, to which they 

 were continually liable, our provident forefathers always kept 

 a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medicated, 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 devoted 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 stubbed and burnt /'/," 



when he was way-warden, regardless of the remonstrances of 

 the bystanders, who interceded in vain for its preservation, 

 urging its power and efficacy, and alleging that it had been 



" Religione patrnm multos servata per annos" 



I am, &c. 



* For a similar practice, see Plot's "Staffordshire." 



1 This observation leads up to the modern science of Folk-lore, dealing 

 with a class of facts too often despised in White's time. " Shrew-struck " 

 horses were frequently cured by dragging the animal through the aperture 

 of a bramble which had grown into the earth at the upper end, as fre- 

 quently happens. The shrew-ash is a special case of that immolation 

 of the deity of vegetation so fully illustrated in Mr. Frazer's "Golden 

 Bough." ED. 



