, 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 lustre, 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 _bruscum_ and _molluscum_ 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 t