188 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



accident, to which they were continually liable, our provident 

 forefathers always kept a s'hrew-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 shrewrinouse 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 remonstrances 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." 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XXIX. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. 



DEAR SIR, Selborne, Feb. 7, 1776. 



IN heavy fogs, on elevated situations especially, trees are perfect 

 alembics : and no one that has not attended to such matters can 

 imagine how much water one tree will distil in a night's time, 

 by condensing the vapour, which trickles down the twigs and 

 boughs, so as to make the ground below quite in a float. In 

 Newton-lane, in October 1775, on a misty day, a particular oak 

 in leaf dropped so fast that the cart-way stood in puddles and 

 the ruts ran with water, though the ground in general was 

 dusty. 



In some of our smaller islands in the West-Indies, if I mistake 

 not, there are no springs or rivers ; but the people are supplied 

 with that necessary element, water, merely by the dripping of 

 some large tall trees, which, standing in the bosom of a moun- 

 tain, keep their heads constantly enveloped with fogs and clouds, 

 from which they dispense their kindly never-ceasing moisture ; 

 and so render those districts habitable by condensation alone. 



Trees in leaf have such a vast proportion more of surface than 



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



