156 The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 
the writer is inclined to believe the very contrary to be the fact. 
It is very fragrant, and far superior to any other wood for the 
insides of chests of drawers, of wardrobes, or for any other like 
purpose where its fine scent would be agreeable to the senses, and 
according to common opinion, be a preservative against the ravages 
of the moth, or rather of its relative the grub. One reason why 
it is not more commonly planted may be its price, but that arises 
from the limited demand for it, for with an increased demand 
the price would soon be greatly decreased. Another and a more 
potent reason, is its slowness of growth during its early years. 
The Yew, so celebrated in olden times for affording the best 
bows for the soldiery of the day; for the British yeomen, or yew- 
men, as well as for those “merry men” of England, led by Robin 
Hood and other gentlemen of similar tastes and propensities, ought 
not to be passed over in silence; and as this tree somewhat resem- 
bles the Pine family, it may as well be mentioned in this place. 
Many counties boast of wonderful specimens of this tree. One, in 
Braburne churchyard, Kent, was measured by Evelyn, who found 
it to be fifty-eight feet eleven inches in circumference : its supposed 
age being 3000 years. Some out-of-the-way corner of Wiltshire 
may possess a patriarch of equal size and age. Who knows? But 
the writer will confine himself to two which he has seen; mere 
pigmies it is true, when compared with their Kentish brother; but 
still very large trees. One of them stands near the Corsley en- 
trance to Longleat Park, in a garden adjoining the high road. It 
has little or no top, the branches having been unmercifully lopped 
away, till the nearly bare trunk is almost all that remains. But 
that trunk—which seems to be sound—is of very respectable di- 
mensions, measuring at three feet from the ground, twenty-four 
feet in circumference; and close to the ground some six or eight 
feet more. The other, not quite so large, but a much handsomer 
tree, having a fair sized and tolerably uniform head, is in the 
churchyard at Edington, near Bratton. It is about six feet high 
up to the springing out of the branches, with apparently a sound 
trunk, which measures rather more than twenty-two feet in cir- 
cumference, at four feet from the ground. 
