THE ASH. 79 



this tree will attain in favourable situations. It is 

 ninety feet high, from the ground to the top of its 

 branches ; and the stem alone is twenty-eight feet. 

 It is twenty-three feet six inches in circumference 

 on the ground, twenty at one foot, and fifteen feet 

 three inches, at three feet from the ground. The 

 circumference of its branches is one hundred and 

 thirteen feet in diameter ; and the measurable tim- 

 ber in the body of the tree, is three hundred and 

 forty-three feet; and in the arms and branches, 

 one of which is nine feet in circumference, five 

 hundred and twenty-nine ; making altogether eight 

 hundred and seventy-two feet of timber. It is 

 in mountain scenery that the ash appears to pe- 

 culiar advantage ; waving its slender branches over 

 some precipice which just affords it soil sufficient 

 for its footing, or springing between crevices of 

 rock, a happy emblem of the hardy spirit which 

 will not be subdued by fortune's scantiness. It is 

 likewise a lovely object by the side of some crystal 

 stream, in which it views its elegant pendent foliage, 

 bending, Narcissus-like, over its own charms. The 

 Ash was held in great veneration by the ancients : 

 insomuch that Hesiod, the oldest of poets, derives 

 his brazen men from it ; and the Edda assigns the 

 same origin to all the human race. Nor is there 

 any tree to which poetry or superstition has at- 

 tached more legendary incidents, or more miraculous 

 powers. 



