152 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



The ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is one of the 

 most graceful of our forest trees. In grace and 

 elegance it must, indeed, at times yield to the 

 birch when growing on the mountain side, or by 

 the edge of a lake or brook ; but the ash has, 

 both in the shape of its crown of foliage and in 

 the delicate bluish -green colour of the leaves, 

 attractions which distinguish it above most of 

 our other trees. Cobbett gave a due appreciation 

 of the ash when he wrote, in his Rural Rides 

 through Huntingdon, that, * In the hedge-rows, 

 in the plantations, everywhere the ash is fine. . . . 

 We have no tree that attains a greater height 

 than the ash, and certainly none that equals it 

 in beauty of leaf. It bears pruning better than 

 any other tree. Its timber is one of the most 

 beautiful ; and as underwood and firewood it far 

 excels all others of English growth.' 



It is now much too valuable for fuel, and in 

 any case beech is better for that purpose. But 

 ash is at the present moment one of the most 

 profitable trees that can be grown. The best 

 ash, that of Nottingham and Leicester, fetches, 

 dressed and ready for coach - builders, up to 

 11 per ton, or nearly 45. 5d. a cubic foot. 



