OF SELBORNE 175 



anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the 

 limb. Against this accident, to which they were con- 

 tinually liable, our provident fore-fathers, always kept a 

 shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medicated, would 

 maintain its virtue for ever. A shrew-ash was made 

 thus : ^ — 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 cere- 

 monies 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 remonstrances 

 of the by-standers, who interceded in vain for its preserva- 

 tion, urging its power and efficacy, and alleging that it 

 had been 



" Religione patrum multos servata per annos." 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXIX 

 TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, Feb. 7, 1776. 



Dear Sir, 

 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 the twigs and boughs, so as to make the 

 ground below quite in a float. In Newton-lane, in 

 October 1775, on a misty day, a particular oak in leaf 



1 For a similar practice, see Plot's Staffordshire. 



