2 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



There are a good number of ordinary deci- 

 duous trees, chiefly on the old bank of the 

 river, such as oak, sycamore, chestnut, birch, 

 beech, and alder, but no conifers of any age 

 except one or two Scotch firs. There is one 

 flourishing deadara which I planted myself 

 and a few young Austrian pines that seem 

 to be doing well. 



A spruce fir that I once planted behaved 

 in an extraordinary way; instead of growing 

 straight, it shot up in a zigzag fashion, the 

 leading shoot one year going off at an angle 

 of 60 degrees or so, and the next year harking 

 back and starting in the opposite direction at 

 about the same angle. 



Few of the trees can be more than 80 years 

 old. I think most of them would have been 

 planted by my father, who was rector from 

 1833 to 1849. There is however a remark- 

 able old yew in the adjoining churchyard. 

 The half of it, just below where the branches 

 spring, measures nearly nine feet round. 

 The other half has entirely gone, so has 

 practically the whole of the substance, the 

 wood of the trunk, and what is left of the still 

 standing side is little more than a shell with 

 a coating of bark. Notwithstanding this 

 there is quite a fair-sized head of leafy young 

 branches (which by the way has greatly 

 increased since I first remember the tree 40 

 years ago) growing up amidst the ruins of 

 the old far-reaching boughs. These yet 



