A forgotten wood, easy as an ash

Doubting whether Mr. Grant had come home, Mr. Kershaw called at the Grange Green, near Forres, while I rode forward. Mr. Grant soon called me back. I have seldom seen a more agreeable place. The house is an old castle, which stands on a little hill, with a delightful prospect all four ways; and the hospitable master has left nothing undone to make it still more agreeable. He showed us all his improvements, which are very considerable in every branch of husbandry. In his gardens many things were more forward than at Aberdeen, yea, or Newcastle. And how is it that none but one Highland gentleman has discovered that we have a tree in Britain, as easily raised as an ash, the wood of which is fully as fine a red as mahogany, namely, the laburnum? I defy any mahogany to exceed the chairs which he has lately made of this.

The Journal of John Wesley