86 SYLVA 



BOOK I 



height, all shaded with their foliage ; and there is 

 besides this, an over-grown oak, which has an arbour 

 in it of sixty foot diameter : Hear we Rapinus describe 

 the use of the horn-beam for these and other elegan- 

 cies. 



1 In walks the horn-beam stands, or in a maze 

 Through thousand self-entangling labyrinths strays : 

 So clasp the branches lopp'd on either side, 

 As though an alley did two walls divide : 

 This beauty found, order did next adorn 

 The boughs into a thousand figures shorn, 

 Which pleasing objects weariness betray 'd, 

 Your feet into a wilderness convey'd. 

 Nor better leaf on twining arbor spread, 

 Against the scorching sun to shield your head. 



Evelyn, Rapin. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Of the Ash. 



i. Fraxinus the ash, is with us reputed male and 

 female, the one affecting the higher grounds ; the 

 other the plains, of a whiter wood, and rising many 

 times to a prodigious stature ; so as in forty years 

 from the key, an ash hath been sold for thirty pounds 



1 In tractus longos facilis tibi carpinus ibit, 

 Mille per errores, indeprehensosque recessus, 

 Et molles tendens secto ceu pariete ramos, 

 Praebebit viridem diverse e margine scenam. 

 Primus honos illi quondam, post additus ordo est, 

 Attonsaeque comae, & formis quaesita voluptas 

 Innumeris, furtoque viae, obliquoque recessu : 

 In tractus acta est longos & opaca vireta. 

 Quineham egregias tendens umbracula frondis 

 Temperat ardentes ramis ingentibus aestus. 



