Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/358

 THE SHREW ASH IN RICHMOND PARK.

offering the following note to accompany the three illustrations of this interesting relic of folk-belief, I would like to start by saying that the Shrew Ash in Richmond Park is not a "mere sucker" springing from the old roots, but a living fragment of the ancient tree itself. The "Sheen Tree," as it is sometimes called, does not only mark the spot where once the famous ash grew, but preserves to this day a still growing portion of the actual part of the trunk where the ritual was performed while the ash remained entire. I wish to emphasise this, as it has been denied once at a meeting of our Society and frequently elsewhere. The identity of the present fragment will, I think, be clearly demonstrated to anyone who compares the old illustrations of 1856 and the sketch of 1860, referred to in the note at foot of the page, either with the tree itself, the most satisfactory mode of comparison, or with the illustrations of 1891. A glance at the latter will show how unmistakably the form of the lower branches in their modern condition agrees with