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, _coeteris 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 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.