The Natural History of Selborne 267 



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 it" 



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 patrum 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 frequently 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. 



