ASH. 89 



run with woods, timber trees were principally 

 valued for the food which they yielded to 

 herds of swine ; and thus, by the laws of 

 HowelDda, the price of an ash was rated at 

 4d., while an oak or a beech was put at 120rf. 



" No want of timber then was felt or fear'd 

 In Albion's happy isle." 



At the present time, ash timber meets with 

 as ready a sale, and brings nearly as high a 

 price as the best oak ; and although we do 

 not so frequently meet with large ash trees, 

 as we do with large oaks and elms, yet it will 

 be seen that the natural size of the tree is 

 nearly the same. But as it grows so much 

 more rapidly than the oak, so will it sooner 

 decay than that tree, if not felled at maturity. 

 It is observed, that when the woodpeckers 

 are seen tapping these trees, they ought to be 

 cut, as these birds never make holes in the 

 ash, until it is on the decay. 



Dr. Plot mentions an ash-tree of eight feet 

 diameter, which was valued at thirty pounds. 

 Mr. Marsham informs us of another in Benel 

 Church Yard, near Dunbarton, in Scotland, 

 which in 1768, measured sixteen feet nine 

 inches in girth, at five feet from the ground. 

 The Rev. Arthur Young, in his Irish tour, 

 mentions ^some of seventy and eighty feet in 



