COMMON ASH. 



87 



clean stem of thirty-one feet, with a circumference near 

 the ground of twelve feet, and contains two hundred and 

 sixty-six feet of solid timber. At Kirkley, also, there are 

 some magnificent Ash trees, and at Whittingham, in the 

 same county, two fine old trees grow near to the Inn. 



As an ornamental and picturesque tree the claims of the 

 Ash are fully admitted by various writers, whose opinion 

 and taste are acknowledged by all. Virgil we know has 

 designated it as, 



Fraxinus in sylvis pulcherrima ; 



Gilpin speaks of the beauty and lightness of its foliage, 

 and the fine, easy, flowing line of its stem and branches ; 

 Sir T. Dick Lauder, whose taste and pictorial powers are 

 so frequently evident in his valuable edition of " Gilpin's 

 Forest Scenery,' 1 though he states the disadvantages under 

 which it labours, considers it, notwithstanding, a noble 

 and magnificent tree ; Strutt, also, whose " Sylva Britan- 

 nica" has furnished us with exquisite illustrations of our 

 finest trees, speaks of the Ash in laudatory terms, not 

 only of its beauty in tranquil scenery, but of its effect in 

 scenes of a wilder and more stirring kind. " It is,"" he says, 

 " in mountain scenery that the Ash appears to peculiar 

 advantage, waving its slender branches over some precipice 

 which just affords it soil sufficient for its footing, or spring- 

 ing between crevices of rocks ; a happy emblem,' 1 he adds, 

 " of the hardy spirit which will not be subdued by for- 

 tune's scantiness.'" 



The principal objections attending the Ash seem to be the 

 following : first, the very late period of its coming into leaf, 

 which, in the north of England and Scotland, even in seasons 

 of average fineness, rarely takes place before the beginning 

 of June. Our notes specify the fourth and sixth of that 



