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monest trees. Instead of which, the Yew-tree, since bows have been laid aside, and it has been excluded from gardens, is manifestly in a decreasing state, for very few young trees are to be found in proportion to the number of old, many of which, however, are of great antiquity. It is probable that the Yew was very early dispersed through Europe, as the Saxon and British names are the same, which we believe is observable in no others, that general and most useful tree, the Apple, excepted. Seeds and plants of the tree, which would make bows much superior to any other, would be equally sought after in early times, and would be as precious as iron was to the inhabitants of the Islands of the South Sea. The wood of this tree in warmer climates is superior to any which grows in this country, and therefore Spanish bows always bore a much greater price here than our own. This inferiority is by no means an argument against its being a native, for there are few if any of our undoubted indigenous trees whose timber is not equal in quality to that of the foreign species. Voiget observes that Yews love a northern and cold situation, but in this country they thrive best in a warm and sheltered one, provided it has sufficient moisture, which would seem to shew that with us they are in a colder climate than their own.

It is difficult to discover what led our ancestors to place this tree so generally in Churchyards. Scarcely any could be selected so ill adapted for protection,

from the slowness of its growth, and the horizontal direction of its branches, both of which circumstances prevent its rising high enough, in a century, to shelter from storms even a building of a moderate height. Neither could one tree supply a whole parish with bows. From its dark and gloomy foliage it might have been considered as an appropriate tree to plant near the resting place of the departed, or it was probably on account of some superstitious belief attaching to it. We find that in the tenth century Howel Dda, in his code of laws for the Welch, fixes the price of a wild Yew tree (Ywen coed) at fifteen pence, but that of a Holy Yew (Ywen sant) was a pound. Wotton and Williams, the Editors of these laws, remark that the Holy Yew-trees were dedicated to some Saints, and are now common in Churchyards, but they produce no authority for this assertion.

I am not aware of there being any Yew-tree in England that is now in its natural state. I mean one that has not been lopped or pollarded. The only instance, with which I am acquainted, of an unmutilated tree is one now standing in the grounds of Arngomery House, Stirlingshire, the seat of William Leckie Ewing, Esq. Nothing can be more beautiful and graceful than this tree. Its girth is thirteen feet, and ten feet at the spring of the branches. The height of the stem to the branches is seven feet six inches, and the height of the tree thirty-five feet. The circumference outside the branches is one hundred

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and ninety-two feet, and the circumference inside the branches at three feet from the ground is ninety-nine feet. The age of this tree must be quite conjectural. Mr. Ewing states that when his grandfather, Dr. Leckie, returned from Jamaica in 1749, just one hundred and three years ago, he was told by the oldest man in the parish, who was nearly 100 years of age, that it was an immense large tree in his young days. When Mr. Ewing took down the old house a few years ago, he found stones in it which his architect said must have been hewn at least 800 years before, and probably were laid in their places when the tree was planted.

There are some remarkable specimens of large Yewtrees still left in England, of which I will mention the following. A Yew in Braburne Churchyard, in Kent, had a diameter of nearly twenty feet, or a circumference of about sixty feet. There is also one in the Woods of Cliefden, near Maidenhead, still healthy, and called the Hedron Yew, which has a diameter of twenty-seven feet. In Langley Churchyard, near Slough, may be seen the shell, if I may call it so, of a Yew-tree, whose diameter formerly was probably as great as that at Cliefden. This Langley Yew would seem to support the opinion of physiologists, that exogenous trees are, by their nature, of indefinite growth that they never die except by a violent death. This, I believe, is the case also with the Vine, the Olive, and the Fig tree.

The Ankerwyke Yew near Windsor, which I visited

last year, is supposed to be upwards of one thousand years old, according to Strutt. It is near Magna Charta Island, and under its shade Henry VIII. is said to have met Anna Boleyn.

I have also seen the Buckland Yew near Dover. It is evidently a tree of very great age, and has a singular appearance. Mr. Loudon gives a figure of it in his "Arboretum Britannicum."

Perhaps the finest collection of Yews, and Mr. Loudon thinks the most extraordinary in the world, are now flourishing at Elvaston Castle, near Derby. The late Lord Harrington, whose fine taste in horticulture was undoubted, purchased venerable Yew-trees at considerable distances from his Seat, and, at a great expense, conveyed them to it. I believe I am correct in stating that there was not a single failure in transplanting these trees. They were grouped about rockwork and other places in the fine gardens at Elvaston Castle, and, as I said, are the finest collection to be met with either in England or elsewhere, considering how recently many of them have been planted or rather transplanted.

Decandolle thinks that of all the European species of trees the Yew attains the greatest age. According to his calculations, thirty centuries must be assigned as the age of the Yew at Braburne in Kent, and from twenty-five to twenty-six centuries to that at Fortingal. There is also a very ancient one at Crewhurst in Surrey, and another at Studley Park, Yorkshire.

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In a portion of the grounds which formerly were attached to the Old Palace of Richmond in Surrey, and which are now leased by the Crown to my kind and excellent friend, Dr. Julius, a most interesting and flourishing Yew-tree is still to be seen. It has a circumference of about eleven feet, and its branches cover an area of ground of considerable extent. This tree is mentioned in the Report of the Parliamentary Commissioners in 1649, and such is the care taken of, and the interest attached to it, that in all the old and more recent Crown leases of the property on which it stands, a clause is inserted, under which the lease may be forfeited should this Yew be in any way cut, lopped, or mutilated

It is difficult to ascertain the age of the tree. The -Old Palace is mentioned in Doomsday Book, and therefore it is not impossible that the tree existed before the reign of William the Conqueror, and its appearance will bear out this supposition, especially with reference to other old Yews.

"O Reader! hast thou ever stood to see

The Holly-tree?

The eye, that contemplates it well, perceives
Its glossy leaves

Ordered by an intelligence, so wise

As might confound the Atheist's sophistries.

Below a circling fence its leaves are seen,
Wrinkled and sheen: