154 



THE ASH. 



we cast our eyes over the country^ and see sucli 

 rows of dark, club -headed, posts, we cannot but 

 remark upon the unsightly character they present, 

 and consider that it is neither laudable to deform 

 our beautiful country by connivance at the practice, 

 nor that it is proper attention to individual profit 

 to allow the continuation of it. The Ash, after 

 this mutilation, in a few years becomes flattened at 

 the summit, moisture lodges in it, and decay com- 

 mences, the central parts gradually mouldering 

 away, though for many years the sap-wood* will 

 throw out \igorous shoots for the hatchet. The 

 caterpillar of the goat-moth now too commences 

 its ravages, and the end is not far distant. But 

 the wood of the Ash appears in every stage sub- 

 ject to injury; when in a dry state the weevils 

 mine holes through it ; when covered by its bark, 

 it gives harbour to an infinite variety of insects, 

 which are the appointed agents for the removal 

 of the timber : the ashen bar of a stile, or a post, 

 we may generally observe to be regularly scored 

 by rude lines diverging from a central stem, like 

 a trained fruit tree, by the meanderings of a little 

 insect {ips niger^ &c.), being the passages of the 

 creatures feeding on the wood." 



Among the most remarkable Ash-trees of which 

 I can find an account are the following : — 



Evelyn mentions " divers in Essex which mea- 

 sured in length one hundred and thirty-two feet." 

 Phillips says : At Doriney, near Clare, in the 

 county of Gralway, is an old Ash, that at four feet 

 from the ground measures forty -two feet in cir- 

 cumference ; at six feet high, thirty feet. The 



^ Alburnum^ or sap ivood, comprises the light-coloured, recently 

 formed layers of wood adjoining the bark. 



