42 RENFREWSHIRE EXCURSIONS. 



on west side), high up in which is hung the old parish church 

 bell of Kilmalcolm, bearing thereon "Kilmalcolm, anno 1743." 

 Near Finlaystone smithy, on the old Greenock road, stands in 

 the policy a fine great maple (12 feet 6 inches at 4 feet 2 inches 

 on west side), and in a wood east of the mansion house is a varie- 

 gated example of large size (7 feet 8 inches at 2 feet 8£ inches 

 on west side). 



Much interest attaches to a group of yew trees, three in 

 number, standing in a plot of ground east of the old avenue of 

 limes, which is called Paradise. Two of the trees are males, the 

 other a female. The most westerly (female) measures 8 feet 



1 if inches at 2 feet 7 inches on north-west side, the middle one 

 (male) of the group to the south measures 7 feet nf inches at 



2 feet 6| inches on west side, the remaining one (male) east of 

 these being 8 feet io£ inches at 2 feet 11 inches on north-west 

 side. They are all fine trees, with long clean boles, and from 

 their relative positions form a triangle. There is now no vestige 

 of a house to be seen in the vicinity, and this fact, coupled with 

 the unusual name the plot of ground bears, excites our curiosity 

 as to the existence of the trees there and the designation Paradise. 

 In an ecclesiastical connection the name Paradise is not 

 unfamiliar, having been, indeed, in some form associated with 

 the Christian Church from the earliest times. It has been not 

 infrequently in England applied to the garth or central space in 

 the monk's cloister, appearing in the corrupt form Preese at 

 Gresford near Chester, the Paradise garth at Beverley, and 

 Paradise at Winchester and Chichester. At Watcombe also is a 

 group of yews called Paradise, where nothing else now remains to 

 indicate the former existence of a monastic foundation. That 

 the Paradise at Finlaystone may have had a similar origin seems 

 quite probable. The position was well chosen with regard to 

 water, and the suggestion is supported by the fact that in the 

 immediate vicinity curious plants are to be found, some of them 

 well known to have been cultivated for medicinal purposes by the 

 monks, and these plants in our district are usually found near old 

 castles or monastic dwellings. The plants referred to include the 

 green hellebore (Helleborus viridis), cuckoo-pint (Arum macu- 

 latum), and Scrophularia vernalis. Immediately to the west of 

 Paradise, on the other side of the old avenue, Finlaystone old 



