112 THE DARLEY YEW. 



Mrs. Fearn, the widow of the late Clerk, had the Darley yew 

 measured for me in 1879, and reported that it was thirty-three feet 

 in girth at four feet from the ground, as close to the bole as the 

 little twigs would allow it to be measured. Not satisfied with 

 this account, I sent string sufficiently long to encircle the bole, 

 and desired that it might be passed round the bole under the 

 twigs, and cut off at the exact girth ; and this having been done, 

 and the string returned to me, I found the girth to be exactly 

 thirty-one feet and eight inches ; and as the tree was only thirty- 

 one feet in girth, in September, 1867, when I, myself, measured 

 it, it has increased eight inches in twelve years. 



This is a very important addition to my knowledge, and affords 

 a very remarkable confirmation of my previous observations. 



It proves that this yew continues increasing in girth in its 

 present state. 



It shows that even now it goes on increasing at a very similar 

 rate to the Clysthydon yews. Two of them have increased eight 

 inches in girth in eleven years, and the third seven inches, and 

 the Darley yew has increased eight inches in girth in twelve years. 



Supposing the Darley yew to have grown at the same rate as 

 during the last twelve years, we have 

 8 : 12 : : 360 



8)443° 



54° 

 according to which the yew is 540 years old. But when the great 

 number of large boughs that have died and been broken or cut off, 

 are taken into consideration, there can be no doubt that in its 

 most flourishing time the increase in girth must have been more 

 rapid than in later years. 



We are now able to prove that the opinion, which we have 

 always held and expressed, that this yew was of a peculiar kind 

 and of extraordinary growth, is correct. Mr. Derbyshire, of Darley 

 Hillside Nursery, who has plants of some 20 different kinds of 

 yews, informs me, that seedlings from it have grown 4 feet in height 

 in 8 years, though grown in a high and exposed situation, and trans- 



