which it is allowed to grow. It gives its name to
many places, especially in the South, as Ashdown, Ashstead, Ashford,
&c.; but to see it in its full beauty it must be seen in our northern
counties, though the finest in England is said to be at Woburn.

"The Oak, the Ash, and the Ivy tree,
O, they flourished best at hame, in the north countrie."

_Old Ballad._

In the dales of Yorkshire it is especially beautiful, and any one who
sees the fine old trees in Wharfdale and Wensleydale will confess that,
though it may not have the rich luxuriance of the Oaks and Elms of the
southern and midland counties, yet it has a grace and beauty that are
all its own, so that we scarcely wonder that Gilpin called it "the Venus
of the woods."

FOOTNOTES:

[24:3] It is called in the "Promptorium Parvulorum" "Esche," and the
seed vessels "Esche key."

ASPEN.

(1) _Marcus._

O, had the monster seen those lily hands
Tremble, like Aspen leaves, upon a lute.

_Titus Andronicus_, act 2, sc. 4 (44).

(2) _Hostess._

Feel, masters, how I shake. . . . . Yea, in very truth do I an
'twere an Aspen leaf.

_2nd Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (114).

The Aspen or Aspe[25:1] (_Populus tremula_) is one of our three native
Poplars, and has ever been the emblem of enforced restlessness, on
account of which it had in Anglo-Saxon times the expressive name of
quick-beam. How this perpetual motion in the "light quivering Aspen" is
produced has not been quite satisfactorily explained; and the mediaeval
legend that it supplied the wood of the Cross, and has never since
ceased to tremble, is still told as a sufficient reason both in Scotland
and England.

"Oh! a cause more deep,
More solemn far the rustic doth assign,
To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves;
The cross, he deems, the blessed cross, whereon
The meek Redeemer bowed His head to death,
Was formed of Aspen wood; and since that hour
Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down
A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe,
Making them tremulous, when not a breeze
Disturbs the airy thistle-down, or shakes
The light lines of the shining gossamer."

MRS. HEMANS.

The Aspen has an interesting bota