THE ASH 67 



Of traditions and superstitious associations with 

 the Ash there is apparently no end. Evelyn and 

 Gilbert White mention the still lingering practice of 

 passing sickly children through a split made in its 

 stem, as a charm against various disorders ; and 

 another practice was to bury a live shrew-mouse 

 which was supposed to bewitch cattle, in a hole in 

 the stem, when a few strokes with the branch would 

 cure the lameness or cramps which the mouse was 

 believed to have caused. The decrepit remains of 

 one of these shrew-ashes are still standing in Rich- 

 mond Park. Many a rustic, probably, to this day 

 believes that some dire calamity will befall the Crown 

 or country in the year when there are no " locks and 

 keys " on the Ash — a belief which may have only 

 originated in the fact that probably in no year is the 

 tree altogether without fruit, the fruit having for 

 centuries been known in England as "keys" or 

 " locks and keys." Popular weather-lore has various 

 rhymes as to the probability of a wet or a dry season 

 according as the Ash comes into leaf before or after 

 the Oak ; which, however, seem to be diametrically 

 conflicting with one another in different coimties. 



The Ash attains a height of from thirty to fifty, 

 or even from seventy to ninety feet, with a girth com- 

 monly of five or six, but in exceptional instances of 

 as much as twenty feet. As the old ballad says : 



" The Oak, the Ash, and the Ivy tree — 

 Oh, they flourished best at hame, in the North Countrie." 



Here it is, as in the dales of Yorkshire, that we see it 

 at its best, growing in moist situations in a rich loam. 



