56 



HARDWICKE'S S CIEN CE-GO S S IP. 



let the dammar solution run under, and boil out the 

 air as above. Dammar seems to be a rather too 

 fractious medium to use oil of cloves, &c. with, as it 

 is inclined to turn opaque, especially with alcohol. 

 The results with balsam and dammar are less satis- 

 factory than with jelly, and bubbles are apt to 

 remain. 



H. M. J. Undekhill and F. J. Allen. 



ANCIENT TREES. 



rnillS subject is evidently one of great interest, 

 -*- judging from the number of correspondents 

 who have contributed information upon it, in your 

 ma2;azine. 





Fig. 48. Fortingal Yew. 



During a short stay in Wrexham last summer, I 

 visited with our friends the churchyard of Overton, 

 formerly a village, now a town situated in Elint- 

 shire, just divided from Denbighshire by the Dee. 

 The churchyard is planted thickly with splendid 

 yews, and from this circumstance forms one of the 

 lesser wonders of North Wales. I send you a 

 sketch of the church and churchyard, copied from 

 the Art Journal, May, 1873, but it does not do 

 justice to the trees, which are well worth a minute 

 examination. The yews are of various ages : one 

 very old one I examined was fast going to decay, 

 the trunk was quite hollow, and the cavity large 

 enough to hold several people comfortably. As 

 neai-ly as I could guess (for I did not measure the 

 tree) its circumference must have been 30 feet three 

 feet from the ground. 



Again, there are twenty large yew-trees in the 

 churchyard at Gresford, in Denbighshire ; but the 

 noted one mentioned in Science-Gossip for April 

 (1873), is a fine specimen. My brother-in-law 

 walked over from Wrexham recently to examine 



it for me ; he girthed it, and found it measured 29 

 feet in circumference five feet from the ground ; it 

 is more than 60 feet high, and is supposed to be 

 about 1,450 years old, planted in the year 426, when 

 the Romans finally left Britain, Wales being at 

 that time a Roman province. 



Both the old sexton and the former church- 

 warden give a similar account respecting this tree, 

 which several scientific men have been over to 

 Gresford to examine. 



In the churchyard of Darley, Derbyshire, there 

 is a very large old yew-tree, which is always a 

 source of attraction to Peak visitors, and is said to 

 be the largest and oldest tree in the kingdom. It 

 measures 33 feet round the trunk, and though 

 bereft of many of its branches, is still in full vigour. 

 In the churchyard, Tisbury, Dorsetshire, 

 there is now standing an immense yew- 

 tree, which measures 37 feet in circumfer- 

 ence. The trunk is quite hollow: it is 

 entered by means of a rustic gate, and 

 seventeen people lately breakfasted in its 

 interior. One in Staines is upwards of 

 1,000 years old. 



The great yew at Eortiugal, Perth- 

 shire, N.B., alluded to in Mr. Lee's 

 most interesting paper in the December 

 Gossip, 1873, page 265, is stated by 

 Gilpin in his "Eorest Scenery," vol. i. 

 page 282, to measure 564 feet in circum- 

 ference, and is supposed to have been a 

 tree at the commencement of our Chris- 

 tian era. It still remains, and was visited 

 by Mr. Neill, the naturalist, in 1833. 

 This yew is figured by Mr. Strutt. 



Many interesting accounts are further 

 given of the yew, in Evelyn's " Silva,'' 

 and also by Gilpin in his first volume of " Forest 

 Scenery." White, in his History of Selborne, note, 

 page 7, says it is calculated that there are yews 

 in Britain upwards of 2,000 and 3,000 years old. 



There are some fine yews round Fountains Abbey, 

 curious in themselves, as well as historically interest- 

 ing : they are said to have been full-grown when 

 the abbey was built in 1132. (Gilpin, page 280.) 



At Hanchurch, near Newcastle, there is a spacious 

 quadrangle formed by many old yews : a church is 

 once supposed to have stood there. Also there is a 

 remarkable avenue of yews at Hales Hall, near 

 Cheadle, Staffordshire, and again some remarkable 

 yews at Himley, Caverswall, and Tixall. The yew 

 was a sacred tree among the Northerns. Its ancient 

 British name was ytc, or ywen ; the former (pro- 

 nounced yew) is the plural, the latter th» singular ; 

 its botanical name is Tcixus baccata. 



Evelyn speaks of a holly hedge in his garden mea- 

 suring 160 feet in length, 7 feet high and 5 feet in 

 diameter. In Keele gardens, near Newcastle, the seat 

 of the Rev. Walter Sneyd, there is growing a holly 



