230 Yew-Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



who chanced to be quartered on that spot, kept 

 order, did George Fox and his friend James 

 Lancaster speak "largely" to a great multitude of 

 people in the year 1653, and Fox, writing in his 

 Journal an account of the sermon, tells us, "This 

 tree was so full of people that I feared they would 

 break it down." ' 



At Loudon Castle, Ayrshire, is an old tree which 

 measured, according to Strutt,^ in 1822, 14 feet in 

 girth at 1 2 feet from the ground ; its height was 

 then 42 feet. Mr. Hutchison gives its height now 

 as 44 feet, and its girth as 13*9 inches. ' It is said 

 that one of the Loudon family charters was signed 

 under it in the time of William the Lion (1165- 

 12 14).' Hutchison says it is 'over eight hun- 

 dred years old.' There is nothing to warrant this 

 supposition, and there is no reason for assigning so 

 great an age to this tree, which might have grown 

 in half the time. 



At Loudon Castle, Ayrshire, there is a tree, 

 measuring 13 feet 10 inches in circumference, under 

 which, tradition says, Bruce bestowed the castle 

 and estate on the Loudon family, and on the same 

 spot, John, Earl of Loudon, signed the Act of Union 

 between England and Scotland. As the former 

 event occurred betwixt a.d. i 274-1 329, the tree 

 must have been of considerable size about six 

 hundred years ago, which is impossible. 



1 op. cit. 



