of Selborne 175 



anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the 

 limb. Against this accident, to which they were con- 

 tinually liable, our provident fore-fathers 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 under- 

 stood, 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 w^ay-warden, regardless of the remonstrances 

 of the by-standers, who interceded in vain for its preserv- 

 ation, urging its power and efficacy, and alleging that it 

 had been 



" Religione patrum niultos servata per annos." 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXIX 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, Feb. 7, 1776. 

 Dear Sir, 



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 



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



