22 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



loppings bum well whether green or dry, and make 

 excellent fires. The ashes of the wood make good pot- 

 ash, and the bark is used for tanning nets and calfskin. 



In the north of Lancashire, when grass is upon the de- 

 cline, Ash-trees are lopped as fodder for the cattle. The 

 leaves have been used to mix with tea ; and Miller tells 

 us that in some places the poor people have made great 

 advantage by collecting them. Whether by saving ex- 

 pense to themselves in lessening their consumption of 

 foreign tea, or whether they were employed to collect these 

 leaves for others, is not clear. Common as the use of 

 foreign tea now is, even among the poorest of our pea- 

 santry, who, notwithstanding the little nourishment it 

 affords them, obtain it at a great expense, it is said that 

 many persons in China give the preference to our En- 

 ghsh herbs for the same purpose ; — such is the disposition 

 of mankind to prefer those things least easy of attainment. 



Medicines have been prepared from the leaves, the 

 bark, the seeds, and the saw-dust : — " but whether the 

 cure be performed by the power of magic or nature," 

 says Evelyn, " I determine not." This author tells us 

 that " the seeds pickled tender make a delicate salading." 



The Ash has, with some persons, a bad character, as a 

 spoiler of butter. It has been observed, that in those 

 parts of Surrey where the ash grows abundantly, the 

 bistter is rank ; and this fault is supposed to proceed 

 from the cows eating the young shoots of the tree. " So 

 that in good dairy counties," says Miller, " they will not 

 let an Ash-tree grow." Martyn remarks upon this, that 

 the Romians recommended the Ash for fodder; — and, 

 continues he, I have passed much time in a country 

 Vvhere Ash was almost the only tree in the hedge-rows, 

 and never observed this rankness in the butter. Cream 



