THE YEW. 



109 



Perhaps the oldest tree of this kind on record is 

 the " Fontingall Yew/' which stood in a church-yard 

 in Scotland. Its age is unknown, but it is asserted 

 that there is strong probability of its having been a 

 flourishing tree at the commencement of the Christian 

 era. About the year 1790, it measured 56 feet 6 

 inches in circumference at the base of the trunk. It 

 has since become very much decayed, and, in 1833, 

 the entire central part had fallen away, leaving it 

 with apparently two trunks which form a sort of arch, 

 " through which the funeral processions of the High- 

 landers would sometimes pass."* 



The famous Yews of Fountain 

 Abbey in Yorkshire are well known. 

 "The abbey was founded in 1132, 

 in the midst of a rough piece of 

 wood-land, in which grew seven large 

 Yew-trees. In 1658, these trees 

 were said to be of extraordinary size, 

 the trunk of one of them being 26 

 feet 6 inches in circumference. At 



that time but six were standing, the 



The Yew. 



largest having been blown down, and 

 they grew so closely together as to form with their 

 boughs a cover almost equal to a thatched roof. 

 Under this shelter tradition tells us the monks re- 

 sided until they had built the monastery."* 



" The Ankerwyke Yew, near Stains, is supposed 

 to be upwards of 1000 years old. Henry VIII. is 



10 



* London's Arboretusa. 



