Ash colour, pearl colour, or golden cinnamon.—Take some walnut roots and boil till your stuff begins to strike, then add some galls; boil till it comes up near to what you want, and then add some copperas, but very sparingly.
ANOTHER METHOD.
Take a little fresh black-thorn bark and a few young tops of briar; boil them in water, and when you think all the dye is extracted, take them out, and put in a small bit of your stuff for trial, and, if you like the colour, put in the whole when boiling, and boil till it comes to your liking. Bush-thorn bark, when ground, if fresh, will, in turmeric, give a rich golden cinnamon.
Ash-coloured Falcon, s. This bird is smaller than the Hen Harrier or Ringtail, with which it is frequently confounded. It is a scarce bird, though Selby says he has taken it in Northumberland, where it breeds on the open moors. Pennant calls it a variety of the Ringtail.
Asinine, a. Belonging to an ass.
Ass, s. An animal of burden.
This animal, though now so common in all parts of these islands, was entirely lost among us during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for Hollingshed informs us, that in his time “our lande did yield no asses.” Yet we are not to suppose that so useful an animal was unknown here before that period; in fact, mention is made of them as early as the time of King Ethelred, above five hundred years preceding, and again in the reign of Henry III., so that it must have been owing to some accident that the race was extinct during the reign of Elizabeth. We are not certain as to the time it was again introduced, probably in the succeeding reign, when our intercourse with Spain was renewed, in which country this animal was greatly used.
Their constitution is so hardy, that even in the depth of winter, the most wretched hovel is sufficient for them from the cold; and so temperate are they with respect to food, that they can subsist on such vegetables as almost any other animal would refuse to eat. The thistle and plantain, which generally grow in abundance on waste lands and along the sides of roads, afford them a sufficient feast after their day of toil is concluded.
When young they are sprightly, handsome, light, and even graceful; but they soon lose those qualities, either from age or bad treatment, and become slow, stubborn, and headstrong. The ass is strongly attached to his master, notwithstanding he is usually ill-treated; he will scent him at a great distance, and distinguish him from any other person. Of all the animals covered with hair he is the least subject to vermin, which apparently proceeds from the peculiar hardness and dryness of the skin; and for the same reason he is less sensible than the horse to the whip, and to the stinging of flies.
The milk of the ass is the lightest of all milks, and is recommended by medical men to persons of delicate stomachs.