200 
quaint incantations long since forgotten. As the ceremonies 
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, for 
" The late vicar stubb'd and burnt it/' 
when he was way-warden, regardless of the remonstrances of the 
bystanders, who interceded in vain for its preservation, urging 
its power and efiicacy, and alleging that it had been ''guarded 
through many years by the piety of our ancestors ;" 
"Eeligione patriim multos servata per annos." 
Si^lbornp:. Jan. 8, 1776. 
LETTEE LXXI. 
TO THE HOXOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
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 dropped so fast that the cart-way stood in puddles 
and the ruts ran with water, though the ground in general was 
dusty. 
In some of our smaller islands in the West Indies, if I mis- 
take not, there are no springs or rivers ; but the people are 
supplied with that necessary element, water, merely by the 
dripping of some large tall trees, which, standing in the bosom 
of a mountain, keep their heads constantly enveloped with fogs 
and clouds, from which they dispense their kindly, never-ceasing 
