392 TRANSACTIONS OP ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the old tree in a much less decayed condition than Pennant or other 

 contemporary chroniclers describe it. The etching shows much 

 more foliage and living branches on the tree, so that the branches of 

 the two portions of the trunk intertwine, and form one leafy head, 

 resting on two hollow shells of trunk facing each other. The gap 

 in the trunk is well represented as of large dimensions, and with 

 a funeral in the act of passing through it ; this being an invariable 

 practice in olden times when funerals entered the churchyard. 

 When old trees grew in a churchyard near a wall, the custom was 

 to carry the corpse for burial between the old tree and the wall, — ■ 

 a custom also prevalent in media3val times in Derbyshire, Stafford- 

 shire, and Cheshire. 



De Candolle in 1831, and again in 1834 ("Physiologic Veg^tale"), 

 from subsequent examination of the annual rings in several much 

 younger yew trees, concluded that every inch of radius of an 

 elderly yew represented twenty-five years' growth, and that con- 

 sequently the Fortingal yew was, in Pennant's time, 2500 or 2600 

 years old. One of the most precise and graphic accounts given 

 by modern authorities who saw the interesting trunk and its condi- 

 tion, the late Mr Patrick Neill, describes it in 1833, and from his 

 narrative it appears to have suffered much depredation and destruc- 

 tion since Strutt's account of it in 1825. He states that large 

 arms had been removed, and even masses of the trunk itself carried 

 off, for the purpose of making drinking-cups, boxes, and other 

 articles of fancy work as relics. " Consequently," says j\Ir Neill, 

 " the remains of the trunk present the appearance of a semicircular 

 wall, exclusive of traces of decayed wood, which scarcely rises above 

 ground. Great quantities of new spray have issued from the firmer 

 portions of the trunk, and young branches spring up to the height 

 perhaps of 20 feet. The side of the trunk now existing gives a 

 diameter of more than 15 feet; so that it is easy to conceive that 

 the circumference of the bole, when entire, should have exceeded 

 50 feet. Happily further depredations have been prevented, by 

 means of an iron rail, which now surrounds the sacred object " 

 (Udin. Nev) Phil. Journal, 1833, xv., 343, note). This iufornia- 

 tion is confirmed in the " New Statistical Account of Scotland," 

 by Ilev. R. Macdonald, then minister of Fortingal, who gives some 

 historical information bearing upon the antiquity of the tree. The 

 only information vouchsafed by Sir John Sinclair's " First Statistical 

 Account," after mentioning the yew, is : — " And a very remarkable 

 tree it is ! " In the " New Account," however, Mr Macdonald tells 



