The Ash Tree

"The Ash-tree" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his 1904 collection ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary''.

Plot summary

In 1690, the English county of Suffolk is wracked with a fear of witches. Many women are accused of casting spells and causing mayhem. One such accused is Mrs. Mothersole, a wealthier noblewoman with property of her own. The only evidence of her witchcraft are eyewitness accounts by Sir Matthew Fell, the owner of a local seat named Castringham. Outside his bedroom window grows a monstrous ash tree, where on moonlit nights he would supposedly see Mrs. Mothersole climbing the trunk and snipping branches with a dagger. Despite her pleas, she is found guilty and hanged. Before the noose is pulled, she dully intones "There will be guests at the Hall". She is buried in the local graveyard.

A few weeks later, Sir Matthew and the local vicar are walking by the ash tree at dusk when they spy a creature in the branches that disappears before they can get a good look. As it is a warm night, the squire leaves his window open. The next day, he is found dead in bed with a severe look of pain and terror on his face. Though a postmortem is performed, no cause of death is found.

Sir Matthew's son, Sir Matthew II, inherits Castringham and refuses to stay in his father's bedroom. Over forty years pass and he passes away in 1735. When the family plot in the local graveyard needs to be expanded to fit his remains, Mrs. Mothersole's resting place is exhumed to make room and the coffin is found to be empty. The locals are puzzled as to who could have robbed the grave.

Sir Matthew II's son, Sir Richard, inherits the seat and also refuses to stay in the supposedly cursed bedroom. In 1754, however, he grows tired of the alternate chamber he chose, as it is cold and smoky. He orders the housekeeper to move his bed into the room where his grandfather died decades previously. That night, he keeps his window closed but hears something scratching on it.

The next day, he is visited by the grandson of the vicar from over sixty years ago, now a vicar himself. They chat about Sir Matthew's death and discover an old Bible of his, where he wrote down his desire for the ash tree to be felled. Sir Richard assures the vicar a man from the village will come the next day and dispose of it. He remarks on the strange scratching noises from the window the night previously, blaming the sounds on the branches scraping the glass. The vicar says this is impossible, as the branches don't reach the window. They conclude it was a mouse that climbed the ivy.

That evening, several guests arrive for a weekend visit. After a dinner, everyone retires to their rooms. In the middle of the night, something climbs through Sir Richard's open window and bites him. The next morning, he is found dead in bed and the guests congregate to discover the secret of the tree. A gardener climbs a ladder and peeks into a hollow in the center, seeing something that causes him to drop his lantern in alarm and set the tree ablaze.

The guests watch in horror as countless large, venomous spiders crawl out of the hollow on fire, dying on the grass. An investigation beneath the tree reveals a cavernous spider's nest containing the withered skeleton of a woman (presumably the remains of Mrs. Mothersole), dead for at least fifty years.

Publication

"The Ash-tree" was first published in ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' in 1904. It was collected again in '' The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James'' in 1931. It has since been anthologised many times.

Adaptations

On 18 December 1963, "The Ash Tree" was dramatised for '' The Black Mass'', an American anthology series broadcast on KPFA (Berkeley) and KPFK (Los Angeles). The series was produced by Eric Bauersfeld.

In 1975, "The Ash-tree" was adapted by David Rudkin as " The Ash Tree", and was part of the BBC's ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' strand. It was first broadcast on 23 December 1975 at 11.35pm. The adaptation stars Edward Petherbridge as Sir Richard and Barbara Ewing as the witch, Anne Mothersole. It was directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark.Angelini, Sergio, . Retrieved 2010-7-7.

On 27 December 1986, a television adaptation of "The Ash-tree" aired on BBC2 as part of its ''Classic Ghost Stories'' programme. The adaptation featured a dramatic reading of the story by Robert Powell, with some scenes depicted by actors.

In 2000, a dramatized narration of the story with Sir Christopher Lee as James was produced by BBC Scotland as part of the series ''Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories For Christmas'', adapted by Ronald Frame.

In October 2007, Nunkie Theatre Company toured a one-man show featuring retellings of James's tales, ''Oh, Whistle ...'', comprising Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad and "The Ash-tree".

In 2007, BBC Audio released ''Ghost Stories Volume One'', which included "The Ash-tree".

In 2019, a modern-day audio adaptation written by Matthew Holness and starring Amanda Abbington, Reece Shearsmith, and John Sessions was released by Bafflegab Productions.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ash Tree, The
1904 short stories
Fiction set in 1690
Fiction set in 1735
Fiction set in 1754
Suffolk in fiction
Short stories set in the United Kingdom
Fiction about curses
Short stories about witches and witchcraft
Short stories about ghosts
Horror short stories
Short stories by M. R. James
Short stories adapted into films
Fraxinus excelsior
Works about nobility
Spiders in popular culture
Fiction about fire
Fiction about skeletons