102 THE DARLEY YEW. 



In order, therefore, to test the matter, I measured the boles of 

 the yews at four feet from the ground, and ascertained by the 

 Register the time when the clerks were buried, and then proceeded 

 to compare the growth of these yews with that of the Darley yew. 



Various statements have been made as to the girth of this noble 

 tree, but they are all in excess of the reality ; the bole of this tree 

 bulges out at a short distance above the ground, and is certainly 

 less in girth nearer to the ground than four feet above it, at which 

 height I measured it, and found it to be 3 1 feet in girth ; and Mr. 

 Cox,* at the same height, which is the widest part, failed to make 

 it 32 feet by a few inches, and 30 feet will be an ample allowance 

 for it nearer to the ground ; and, as the Clysthydon yews rise 

 regularly from the ground, that is the proper measure to compare 

 them with. 



I would gladly have avoided any calculations by figures ; but 

 that is impossible. I will, however, confine my statements to 

 giving the correct results from the calculations, which have been 

 carefully made, except in one case, which I give as an example of 

 the manner in which I calculate the probable age of the Darley 

 yew. I have taken Owens' yew as having increased nine inches 

 in diameter in thirty-five years, and ten feet or 120 inches as the 

 diameter of the Darley yew. Here we have three points, which 

 enable us to work by the Rule of Three. Thus the diameter of 

 Owens' yew is to the number of years in which it has been grown, 

 as the diameter of the Darley yew is to the number of years in 

 which it has grown. Thus — 



Inches. Years. Inches. 

 9 : 35 : : 120 



35 



600 

 360 



9)4200 



4 66f 



Derbyshire Churches, vol. ii., p. 170. 



