Sylva Part 12

FOOTNOTES:

{75:1} Theophrast. l. 3. c. 9.

{77:1}

Hinc olim juvenis mundi melioribus annis, Fortunatarum domuum non magna supellex Tota petebatur; sellas, armaria, lectos, Et mensas dabat, & lances & pocula f.a.gus, _&c._

_Couleij Pl._ l. 6.

{78:1}

.........Nec bella fuerunt, f.a.ginus adstabat dum scyphus ante dapes.

_Tibul._

{79:1}

Sic qui vecturus longinqua per aequora merces Molitur tellure ratem, vitamque procellis Objectare parat, f.a.gos met.i.tur, & alnos, Ad varium rudibus silvis accommodat usum, &c.

{80:1}

..........Silva domus, cubilia frondes.

_Juvenal._

CHAPTER VI.

_Of the Horn-beam._

1. _Ostrys_ the horn-beam, (by some called the horse-beech, from the resemblance of the leaf) in Latin (ignorantly) the _Carpinus_, is planted of sets; though it may likewise be rais'd from the _julas_ and seeds, which being mature in August, should be sown in October, and will lie a year in the bed, which must be well and carefully shaded so soon as they peep: But the more expeditious way is by layers or sets, of about an inch diameter, and cut within half a foot of the earth: Thus it will advance to a considerable tree. The places it chiefly desires to grow in are in cold hills, stiff ground, and in the barren and most expos'd parts of woods. We have it no where more abounding in the south, than in the woods of Hartfordshire; very few westward.

2. Amongst other uses which it serves for, as mill-cogs, &c. (for which it excels either yew or crab) yoak-timber (whence of old, and for that it was as well flexible as tough, 'twas call'd ????a) heads of beetles, stocks and handles of tools: It is likewise for the turners use excellent; good fire-wood, where it burns like a candle, and was of old so employ'd;

_Carpinus taedas fissa facesque dabit._

(For all which purposes its extream toughness and whiteness commends it to the husbandman.) Being planted in small fosses or trenches, at half a foot interval, and in the single row, it makes the n.o.blest and the stateliest hedges for long walks in gardens, or parks, of any tree whatsoever whose leaves are deciduous, and forsake their branches in winter; because it grows tall, and so st.u.r.dy, as not to be wronged by the winds: Besides, it will furnish to the very foot of the stem, and flourishes with a glossie and polish'd verdure, which is exceeding delightful, of long continuance, and of all other the harder woods, the speediest grower; maintaining a slender, upright-stem, which does not come to be bare and sticky in many years; it has yet this (shall I call it) infirmity, that keeping on its leaf till new ones thrust them off, 'tis clad in russet all the winter long. That admirable _espalier_-hedge in the long middle walk of Luxemburgh garden at Paris (than which there is nothing more graceful) is planted of this tree; and so was that cradle, or close-walk, with that perplext canopy which lately covered the seat in his Majesty's Garden at Hampton-Court, and as now I hear, they are planted in perfection at New-park, the delicious villa of the n.o.ble Earl of Rochester, belonging once to a near kinsman of mine, who parted with it to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory. These hedges are tonsile; but where they are maintain'd to fifteen or twenty foot height (which is very frequent in the places before mention'd) they are to be cut, and kept in order with a syth of four foot long, and very little falcated; this is fix'd on a long sneed or streight handle, and does wonderfully expedite the tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of these and the like hedges: An oblong square, palisado'd with this plant, or the Flemish _ormus_, as is that I am going to describe, and may be seen in that inexhaustible magazine at Brompton Park (cultivated by those two industrious fellow-gardiners, Mr. London, and Mr. Wise) affords such an _umbraculum frondium_, the most natural, proper station and convenience for the protection of our orange-trees, myrtles, (and other rare perennials and exoticks) from the scorching darts of the sun, and heat of summer; placing the cases, pots, &c. under this shelter, when either at the first peeping out of the winter concleave, or during the increasing heat of summer, they so are ranged and disposed, as to adorn a n.o.ble area of a most magnificent paradisian dining-room to the top of hortulan pomp and bliss, superior to all the artificial furniture of the greatest prince's court: Here the Indian narcissus, tuberoses, j.a.pan-lillies, jasmines, jonquills, lalaes, periclymena, roses, carnations, (with all the pride of the _parter_) intermixt between the tree-cases, flowry vasas, busts and statues, entertain the eye, and breath their redolent odors and perfumes to the smell: The golden fruit and apples of Hesperides, gratifie the taste, with the delicious annanas, affecting all the sensories; whilst the chearful ditties of _canorus_ birds, recording their innocent _amours_ to the murmurs of the bubling fountain, delight the ear, and with the charming accents of the fair and vertuous s.e.x, (preferable to all the admired composure of the most skilful musitians) join consort in hymns and hallelujahs to the bountiful and glorious Creator, who has left none of the senses, which he has not gratify'd at once, with their most agreeable and proper objects.

But to return to Brompton: 'Tis not to be imagin'd what a surprizing scene, such a s.p.a.cious _salone_, tapistried with the natural verdure of the glittering foliage, present the spectator, and recompenses the toil of the ingenious planter; when after a little patience, he finds the slender plants, set but at five or six foot distance, (nor much more in height, well prun'd and dress'd) ascend to an alt.i.tude sufficient to shade and defend his paradisian treasure without excluding the milder gleams of the glorious and radiant planet, with his cherishing influence, and kindly warmth, to all within the inclosure, refreshed with the cooling and early dew, pregnant with the sweet exhalations which the indulgent mother and teeming earth sends up, to nourish and maintain her numerous and tender off-spring.

But after all, let us not dwell here too long, whilst the inferences to be derived from those tempting and temporary objects, prompt us to raise our contemplations a little on objects yet more worthy our n.o.blest speculations, and all our pains and curiosity, representing that happy state above, namely, the clestial paradise: Let us, I say, suspend our admiration a while, of these terrestrial gayeties, which are of so short continuance, and raise our thoughts from being too deeply immers'd and rooted in them, aspiring after those supernal, more lasting and glorious abodes, namely, a paradise; not like this of ours (with so much pains and curiosity) made with hands, but eternal in the heavens; where all the trees are Trees of Life; the flowers all amaranths; all the plants perennial, ever verdant, ever pregnant; and where those who desire knowledge, may fully satiate themselves; taste freely of the fruit of that tree, which cost the first gardiner and posterity so dear; and where the most voluptuous inclinations to the allurements of the senses, may take, and eat, and still be innocent; no forbidden fruit; no serpent to deceive; none to be deceived.

Hail, O hail then, and welcome, you bless'd elyziums, where a new state of things expects us; where all the pompous and charming delights that detain us here a while, shall be changed into real and substantial fruitions, eternal springs, and pleasure intellectual, becoming the dignity of our nature!

I beg no pardon for the application, but deplore my no better use of it, and that whilst I am thus upon the wing, I must now descend so soon again.

Of all the foresters, this preserves it self best from the bruttings of deer, and therefore to be kindly entertain'd in parks: But the reason why with us, we rarely find them ample and spreading, is, that our husbandman suffers too large and grown a lop, before he cuts them off, which leaves such ghastly wounds, as often proves exitial to the tree, or causes it to grow deform'd and hollow, and of little worth but for the fire; whereas, were they oftener taken off, when the lops were younger, though they did not furnish so great wood, yet the continuance and flourishing of the tree, would more than recompence it. For this cause,

3. They very frequently plant a clump of these trees before the entries of most of the great towns in Germany, to which they apply timber-frames for convenience, and the people to sit and solace in. _Scamozzi_ the architect, says, that in his time he found one whose branches extended seventy foot in breadth; this was at Vuimfen near the Necker, belonging to the Duke of Wirtemberg: But that which I find planted before the gates of Strasburgh, is a _plata.n.u.s_, and a lime-tree growing hard by one another, in which is erected a _Pergolo_ eight foot from the ground, of fifty foot wide, having ten arches of twelve foot height, all shaded with their foliage; and there is besides this, an over-grown oak, which has an arbour in it of sixty foot diameter: Hear we _Rapinus_ describe the use of the horn-beam for these and other elegancies.

In walks the horn-beam stands, or in a maze Through thousand self-entangling labyrinths strays: So clasp the branches lopp'd on either side, As though an alley did two walls divide: This beauty found, order did next adorn The boughs into a thousand figures shorn, Which pleasing objects weariness betray'd, Your feet into a wilderness convey'd.

Nor better leaf on twining arbor spread, Against the scorching sun to shield your head.{86:1}

Evelyn, _Rapin._

FOOTNOTES:

{86:1}

In tractus longos facilis tibi carpinus ibit, Mille per errores, indeprehensosque recessus, Et molles tendens secto ceu pariete ramos, Praebebit viridem diverso e margine scenam.

Primus honos illi quondam, post additus ordo est, Attonsaeque comae, & formis quaesita voluptas Innumeris, furtoque viae, obliquoque recessu: In tractus acta est longos & opaca vireta.

Quinetiam egregiae tendens umbracula frondis Temperat ardentes ramis ingentibus aestus.

CHAPTER VII.

_Of the Ash._

1. _Fraxinus_ the ash, is with us reputed male and female, the one affecting the higher grounds; the other the plains, of a whiter wood, and rising many times to a prodigious stature; so as in forty years from the key, an ash hath been sold for thirty pounds sterling: And I have been credibly inform'd, that one person hath planted so much of this one sort of timber in his life time, as hath been valued worth fifty thousand pounds to be bought. These are pretty encouragements, for a small and pleasant industry. That there is a lower, and more knotty sort, every husbandman can distinguish.

2. The keys or toungs being gathered from a young thriving tree when they begin to fall (which is about the end of October, and the ensuing month) are to be laid to dry, and then sowed any time betwixt that and Christmas; but not altogether so deep as your somer masts: Thus they do in Spain, from whence it were good to procure some of the keys from their best trees: A very narrow seminary will be sufficient to store a whole country: They will lie a full year in the ground before they appear; therefore you must carefully fence them all that time, and have patience: But if you would make a considerable wood of them at once, dig, or plow a parcel of ground, as you would prepare it for corn, and with the corn, especially oats, (or what other grain you think fittest) sow also good store of keys, some crab-kernels, &c. amongst them: Take off your crop of corn, or seed in its season, and the next year following, it will be cover'd with young ashes, which will be fit either to stand (which I prefer) or be transplanted for divers years after; and these you will find to be far better than any you can gather out of the woods (especially suckers, which are worth nothing) being removed at one foot stature (the sooner the better); for an ash of two years thus taken out of the nursery, shall outstrip one of ten, taken out of the hedge; provided you defend them well from cattel, which are exceedingly licorish after their tops: The reason of this hasty transplanting, is to prevent their obstinate and deep rooting; _tantus amor terrae_ ............. which makes them hard to be taken up when they grow older, and that being removed, they take no great hold till the second year, after which, they come away amain; yet I have planted them of five and six inches diameter, which have thriven as well as the smaller wands.

You may accelerate their springing by laying the keys in sand, and some moist fine earth s. s. s. but lay them not too thick, or double, and in a cover'd, though airy place for a winter, before you sow them; and the second year they will come away mainly; so you weed, trim and cleanse them. Cut not his head at all (which being young, is pithy) nor, by any means the fibrous part of the roots; only that down-right, or taproot (which gives our husbandmen so much trouble in drawing) is to be totally abated: But this work ought to be in the increase of October, or November, and not in the Spring. We are (as I told you) willing to spare his head rather than the side branches (which whilst young, may be cut close) because being yet young, it is but of a spungy substance; but being once well fixed, you may cut him as close to the earth as you please; it will cause him to shoot prodigiously, so as in a few years to be fit for pike-staves; whereas if you take him wild out of the forest, you must of necessity strike off the head, which much impairs it.

Hedgerow ashes may the oftner be decapitated, and shew their heads again sooner than other trees so us'd. Young ashes are sometimes in winter frost-burnt, black as coals, and then to use the knife is seasonable, though they do commonly recover of themselves slowly. In South-Spain, (where, as we said, are the best) after the first dressing, they let them grow till they are so big, as being cleft into four parts, each part is sufficient to make a pike-staff: I am told there is a Flemish ash planted by the Dutchmen in Lincolnshire, which in six years grows to be worth twenty shillings the tree; but I am not a.s.sur'd whether it be the ash or abeele; either of them were, upon this account, a worthy encouragement, if at least the latter can be thought to bear that price, which I much question: From these low cuttings come our ground-ashes, so much sought after for arbours, espaliers, and other pole-works: They will spring in abundance, and may be reduced to one for a standard-tree, or for timber, if you design it; for thus hydra-like, a ground-cut-ash,

By havock, wounds and blows, More lively and luxuriant grows.{89:1}

Ash will be propagated from a bough slipt off with some of the old wood, a little before the bud swells, but with difficulty by layers. Such as they reserve for spears in Spain, they keep shrip'd up close to the stem, and plant them in close order, and moister places. These they cut above the knot (for the least nodosity spoils all) in the decrease of January, which were of the latest for us: It is reported that the ash will not only receive its own kind, but graff, or be inoculated with the pear and apple, but to what improvement I know not.

3. It is by no means convenient to plant ash in plow-lands; for the roots will be obnoxious to the coulter; and the shade of the tree is malignant both to corn and gra.s.s, when the head and branches over-drip and emaciate 'em; but in hedge-rows and plumps, they will thrive exceedingly, where they may be dispos'd at nine or ten foot distance, and sometimes nearer: But in planting of a whole wood of several kinds of trees for timber, every third set at least, would be an ash. The best ash delights in the best land (which it will soon impoverish) yet grows in any; so it be not over-stiff, wet, and approaching to the marshy, unless it be first well drain'd: By the banks of sweet, and crystal rivers and streams, I have observ'd them to thrive infinitely. One may observe as manifest a difference in the timber of ashes, as of the oak; much more than is found in any one kind of elm, _cteris paribus_: For so the ground-ash (like the oak) much excels a bough, or branch of the same bulk, for strength and toughness; and in yet farther emulation of the oak, it has been known to prove as good and lasting timber for building, nay, preferr'd before it, where there has been plenty of oak; vast difference there is also in the strength of ground, and quarter'd ash: 'Tis likewise remarkable that the ash, like the cork-tree, grows when the bark is as it were quite peel'd off, as has been observ'd in several forests, where the deer have bared them as far as they could climb: Some ash is curiously camleted and vein'd, I say, so differently from other timber, that our skilful cabinet-makers prize it equal with ebony, and give it the name of green ebony, which the customer pays well for; and when our wood-men light upon it, they may make what money they will of it: But to bring it to that curious l.u.s.tre, so as 'tis hardly to be distinguished from the most curiously diaper'd olive, they varnish their work with the china-varnish, (hereafter described) which infinitely excels linseed-oyl, that Cardan so commends, speaking of this root. The truth is, the _brusc.u.m_ and _mollusc.u.m_ to be frequently found in this wood, is nothing inferior to that of maple, (of which hereafter) being altogether as exquisitely diaper'd, and wav'd like the gamahes of Achates; an eminent example of divers strange figures of fish, men and beasts, Dr. Plott speaks of to be found in a dining-table made of an old ash, standing in a gentleman's house somewhere in Oxfordshire: Upon which is mention'd that of Jacobus Gaffarellus, in his book of _Unheard-of Curiosities_; namely of a tree found in Holland, which being cleft, had in the several slivers, the figures of a chalice, a priest's albe, his stole, and several other pontifical vestments: Of this sort was the elm growing at Middle-Aston in Oxfordshire, a block of which wood being cleft, there came out a piece so exactly resembling a shoulder of veal, that it was worthy to be reckon'd among the curiosities of this nature.

4. The use of ash is (next to that of the oak it self) one of the most universal: It serves the soldier ............ & _Fraxinus utilis hastis_, and heretofore the scholar, who made use of the inner bark to write on, before the invention of paper, &c. The carpenter, wheel-wright, cart-wright, for ploughs, axle-trees, wheel-rings, harrows, bulls, oares, the best blocks for pullies and sheffs, as seamen name them; for drying herrings, no wood like it, and the bark for the tanning of nets; and, like the elm, for the same property (of not being so apt to split and scale) excellent for tenons and mortaises: Also for the cooper, turner, and thatcher: Nothing like it for our garden palisade-hedges, hop-yards, poles, and spars, handles, stocks for tools, spade-trees, &c. In sum, the husbandman cannot be without the ash for his carts, ladders, and other tackling, from the pike to the plow, spear, and bow; for of ash were they formerly made, and therefore reckon'd amongst those woods, which after long tension, has a natural spring, and recovers its position; so as in peace and war it is a wood in highest request: In short, so useful and profitable is this tree, (next to the oak) that every prudent lord of a mannor, should employ one acre of ground, with ash or acorns, to every 20 acres of other land; since in as many years, it would be more worth than the land it self.

There is extracted an oyl from the ash, by the process on other woods, which is excellent to recover the hearing, some drops of it being distill'd warm into the ears; and for the _caries_ or rot of the bones, tooth-ach, pains in the kidneys, and spleen, the anointing therewith is most soveraign. Some have us'd the saw-dust of this wood instead of _guiac.u.m_, with success. The chymists exceedingly commend the seed of ash to be an admirable remedy for the stone: But (whether by the power of magick or nature, I determine not) I have heard it affirm'd with great confidence, and upon experience, that the rupture to which many children are obnoxious, is healed, by pa.s.sing the infant thro' a wide cleft made in the hole or stem of a growing ash-tree, thro' which the child is to be made pa.s.s; and then carried a second time round the ash, caused to repa.s.s the same aperture again, that the cleft of the tree suffer'd to close and coalesce, as it will, the rupture of the child, being carefully bound up, will not only abate, but be perfectly cur'd.

The _manna_ of Calabria is found to exsude out of the leaves and boughs of this tree, during the hot summer-months. Lastly, the white and rotten dotard part composes a ground for our gallants sweet-powder, and the trunchions make the third sort of the most durable coal, and is (of all other) the sweetest of our forest-fuelling, and the fittest for ladies chambers, it will burn even whilst it is green, and may be reckoned amongst the ??ap?a ???a. To conclude, the very dead leaves afford (like those of the elm) relief to our cattle in winter; and there is a dwarf-sort in France, (if in truth it be not, as I suspect, our witchen-tree) whose berries feed the poor people in scarce years; but it bears no keys, like to ours, which being pickled tender, afford a delicate salading. But the shade of the ash is not to be endur'd, because the leaves produce a noxious insect; and for displaying themselves so very late, and falling very early, not to be planted for umbrage or ornament; especially near the garden, since (besides their predatious roots) the leaves dropping with so long a stalk, are drawn by cl.u.s.ters into the worm-holes, which foul the allies with their keys, and suddenly infect the ground. Note, that the season for felling of this tree must be when the sap is fully at rest; for if you cut it down too early, or over-late in the year, it will be so obnoxious to the worm, as greatly to prejudice the timber; therefore to be sure, fell not till the three mid-winter months, beginning about November: But in lopping of pollards, (as of soft woods) Mr. Cook advises it should be towards the Spring, and that you do not suffer the lops to grow too great: Also, that so soon as a pollard comes to be considerably hollow at the head, you suddenly cut it down, the body decaying more than the head is worth: The same he p.r.o.nounces of taller ashes, and where the wood-p.e.c.k.e.rs make holes (who constantly indicate their being faulty) to fell it in the Winter. I am astonish'd at the universal confidence of some, that a serpent will rather creep into the fire, than over a twig of ash; this is an old imposture of{94:1} Pliny's, who either took it up upon trust, or we mistake the tree. Other species, see _Ray Dendrolog._ t. III. lib.

x.x.x. p. 95. _De fraxino_, t. II. p. 1704.

FOOTNOTES:

{89:1}

Per d.a.m.na, per caedes, ab ipso Ducit opes animumque ferro.