106 THE DARLEY YEW. 



nearly at right angles, and shoot out horizontally, as yews usually 

 do.* But the Darley yew, in height, in the size and upward 

 direction and spread of its limbs — indeed, in its whole figure — 

 is very much more like a gigantic oak or ash than a yew. The 

 appearance altogether indicates not only a very rapid growth, but 

 also that it has a distinct character— indeed, I have never seen 

 any other yew, with the exception noticed hereafter, which bore 

 any near resemblance to this tree. 



Every one who has devoted any attention to the matter, must 

 have observed that amongst trees that were planted at the same 

 time, some will from the first take the lead of others, and leave 

 them far behind. This is sometimes due to the difference in the 

 soil in which they are planted ; but there is no doubt a natural 

 superiority in some cases in one plant over another. Some years 

 ago all the seeds of a Newtown Pippin were sown in a flower pot. 

 One plant sprang up in the first year to the remarkable height 

 of a yard, and grew another yard in the second year. The other 

 seeds produced very puny plants. Of course, if such a superior 

 plant happens to be placed in soil that thoroughly suits it, its 

 increase will naturally be very great ; and such, I should infer, has 

 been the case with the Darley yew. 



The Darley yew stands in the place where the soil in that 

 churchyard is the richest, and most frequently refreshed ; for the 

 proximity to the south porch has always been preferred for burials 

 in Derbyshire, and in that county the practice is but too common 

 to bury members of the same family in the same grave, one after 

 another. The burials are in all parts of the churchyard at 

 Clysthydon. 



At Darley, also, the yew is protected from the north by the 

 church ; not so the other yews : the largest stands on the north of 

 the church, and the others on the east. 



When I drove past Darley Hall, I was so very much struck with 

 the lofty boles and timber-like appearance of some yews there, 

 which seemed so like the yew in the churchyard, that I had them 

 measured, and the largest of them is six feet three inches round, 



* See I. Evelyn's Silva, by Dr. Hunter, 264 note, 5th Ed. 



