68 THE ASH. 



the scholar, who made use of the inner bark to write on, 

 before the invention of paper. The carpenter, wheel- 

 wright, and cartwright find it excellent for jilows, axle- 

 trees, wheel-rings, and harrows ; it makes good oars, blocks 

 for pulleys, and sheflfs, as seamen name them : for drjdng 

 herrings no wood is like it, and the bark is good for the 

 tanning of nets ; and, like the Elm (for the same property 

 of not being aj)t to split or scale), is excellent for tenons 

 and mortises ; also for the cooper, turner, and thatcher ; 

 nothing is like it for our garden palisade hedges, hop- 

 yards, poles and spars, handles and stocks for tools, spade- 

 trees, &c. In summer, the husbandman cannot be with- 

 out the Ash for his carts, ladders, and other tackling, from 

 the pike, spear, and bow, to the plow ; for of Ash were 

 they formerly made, and therefore reckoned amongst 

 those woods which, after long tension, have a natural 

 spring, and recover their position, so as in peace and war 

 it is a wood in highest request. In short, so useful and 

 profitable is this tree, next to the Oak, that every prudent 

 lord of a manor should employ one acre of ground with 

 Ash to every twenty acres of other land, since in as many 

 years it would be more worth than the land itself." — But, 

 we may add, it should be planted in sheltered situations, 

 where the soil is moderately dry. " Some Ash is curiously 

 cambleted and veined, so diff"erently from other timber, 

 that our skilful cabinet-makers prize it equal with Ebony, 

 and give it the name of green Ebony, which their cus- 

 tomers pay well for ; and when our woodmen light upon 

 it, they may make what money they will of it." — " Lastly, 

 the white and rotten dotard part composes the ground for 

 our gallants' sweet powder ; and the truncheons make the 

 third sort of most dui-able coal, and is, of all others, the 

 sweetest of our forest fuelling, and the fittest for ladies' 

 chambers ; it will burn even whilst it is green, and may 

 be reckoned amongst the kinds of wood which burn with- 

 out smoke." ^ 



^ Evelyn's Sylva. 



