title: The Ash and the Beech: The Drama of Woodland Change
author: Richard Mabey
description: RICHARD MABEY is the father figure of modern nature writing in the UK. Since 1972 he has written some 40 influential books, including the prize-winning <i>Nature Cure, Gilbert White: a Biography</i>, and <i>Flora Britannica</i>. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society. He spent the first half of his life amongst the Chiltern beechwoods, and now lives in Norfolk in a house surrounded by ash trees.
zlib_text: [Back](1597801140___4.htm) | [Next](1597801140___6.htm)  
  [Contents](1597801140_toc.htm)
  
  # **Constant Never**
  
  "Give me ale, you dog, and food, and be quick about it."
  
  The _Ritter_ Karl von Obersberg scraped some of the horse dung off his feet as
  he entered the village inn. Not that it would make much difference--the common
  room looked no better than the stable where he'd put his horses. Certainly it
  smelled no better, and there was smoke enough from the hearth in the center to
  make his eyes sting, but it was warmer and drier than the drizzle outside. The
  firepit was surrounded by the pine log pillars that held up the roof, branches
  still standing out like stubs. The knight hung his cloak on one to dry; it was
  woven of raw wool and usually shed water like a duck's back, but the long
  day's ride and last night's sleep under an oak tree had soaked it through.
  
  There were carvings on the tree trunks. Bearded faces . . .
  
  _The Old Ones,_ he thought. These Saxon dogs were half-heathen yet,