NOTES FROM LOUGH ERNE. 483 



It .appears, however, to be in a very healthy and flourishing condition : 

 no symptoms of decay are observable upon it ; on the contrary, its 

 foliage is perfect, and I noticed many of its bright scarlet berries 

 gleaming through its dark green leaves. It may seem somewhat 

 derogatory from the dignity of this noble tree, if I observe, that a 

 mushroom, with its stem and pileus magnified to the before-mentioned 

 dimensions, would give no very inaccurate idea of the form and 

 arrangement of the yew : however, as a compensatory comparison, I 

 would add, that occasion having been taken, from fear of the boughs 

 being injured by their excessive length and weight, to support them in 

 their horizontal position by numerous props, the tree has been thence 

 remarked to bear a resemblance to the Ficus Indica, or Banian Tree, 

 so beautifully described by Milton. 



" The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown'd, 

 But such as at this day to Indians known, 

 In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms 

 Branching so broad and long that in the ground 

 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade 

 High overarch'd, and echoing walks between ; 

 There oft the Indian herdsman shunning heat, 

 Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds, 

 At loopholes cut through thickest shades." Par. Lost,ix. 1101. 



Not to commend our yew-tree, however, hyperbolically, the extent 

 over which I have above described it as expanding, would evidently 

 suffice to accommodate no small party of herdsmen or herds, though it 

 would hardly be capacious enough for a regiment of soldiers, which 

 tradition alleges to have taken shelter under it ; at the same time that 

 the deep umbrageous foliage of its gigantic branches would serve as an 

 impenetrable protection against the most powerful summer heat. 



My excursion to Crum Castle enables me to add another Heronry to 

 those which I have on former occasions mentioned as existing in Ireland. 

 Of the beautiful and almost innumerable islands, which are scattered 

 over Lough Erne, one was pointed out to me as containing a large 

 number of herons, or cranes, as they are commonly called in this 

 county. They were reported to me as building and breeding on that 

 island in the spring : but in answer to my inquiries concerning their 

 forsaking it in winter, as I mentioned in a late letter to be the case 

 with Lord Downshire's Heronry at Hilsborough, I did not learn that such 

 was their habit. On the contrary, my informant, an inhabitant of the 



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