SUPERSTITIONS OF SELBORNE. 



baneful and deleterious a nature, that wherever 

 it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, or sheep, 

 the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, 

 and threatened with the loss of the use of the 

 limb. Against this accident, to which they were 

 continually liable, our provident forefathers al- 

 ways kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once 

 medicated, would maintain its virtue for ever. 

 A shrew-ash was made thus l : 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 understood, 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 way- warden, regardless of the re- 

 monstrances of the by-standers, who interceded in 

 vain for its preservation, urging its power and 

 efficacy, and alleging that it had been 



" Religione patrum multos servata per annos." 



XXIX, 



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 



1 For a similar practice, see PLOT'S Staffordshire. 



