EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 309 



I shall be made 

 Ere longe a fleeting shade ; 



Pray come. 

 And do some honor to my tomb." 



Some of the old Yews in the churchyards and gardens 

 of England have attained a wonderful period of longevity. 

 Gilpin mentions one in the churchyard of Tisbury in 

 Dorsetshire, now standing and in fine foliage, though the 

 trunk is quite hollow, which measures thirty-seven feet in 

 circumference, and the limbs are proportionately large. 

 The tree is entered by a rustic gate ; and seventeen persons 

 lately breakfasted in its interior. It is said to have been 

 planted many generations ago by the Arundel family. The 

 famous Yew at Arkenwyke House, which Henry VIII. 

 made his place of meeting with Anna Boleyn when she 

 was there, is supposed to be upwards of a thousand years 

 old ; it is forty -nine feet high, twenty-seven in circumfer- 

 ence, and the branches extend over an area of two hundred 

 and seven feet. There are, besides these, a great number 

 of other celebrated Yews in England, of immense size and 

 age, which are preserved with the greatest care and 

 veneration. 



It is a common saying of the inhabitants of the New 

 Forest in England, says Gilpin, that " a post of Yew will 

 outlast a post of iron. The wood is extremely durable, 

 and being hard and very fine-grained, as well as beau- 

 tifully variegated with reddish or orange veins, it is 

 much prized for inlaying, veneering, and other similar 

 purposes by the cabinet-makers abroad. Tables made of 

 it are said to be more beautiful than those of mahogany ; 

 and the wood of the root to vie in beauty with that of the 

 Citron. 



