io Yew-Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



centre, surrounded in some instances by a ring of 

 secondary growth, also dead, outside which is a 

 third ring of living wood. Two trees, one at the 

 end of each hedge, and probably planted at the 

 same time, have been left untrimmed for a long 

 period. One of them is 1 2 feet in girth. 



The yew hedges at Bishopsbourne, near Canter- 

 bury, says the Rev. Mr. Hirst, 'were planted by 

 Richard Hooker about 1595, the year he came to 

 Bishopsbourne ; he could not have walked under 

 their shade, as tradition asserts, as he was only 

 there five years, having died in 1600. They are 

 now about 14 feet high and io feet thick.' 



' At Rockingham there remains a great terraced 

 mound of earth, covered with turf and a few trees, 

 raised against a part of the high wall which sur- 

 rounds the garden, and behind which the keep 

 formerly stood. From the top of this the eye 

 ranges across the garden with quaintly cut yew- 

 trees, over a magnificent view of the open country 

 beyond.' 



'The quaintly-rounded hedges and the hedges 

 and trees at Erbistock are examples of the cut 

 yews of this date. That of Bilton, in Warwick- 

 shire, with its fine holly and yew hedges, was 

 begun in 1623. J1 



Some fine examples of * topiary ' are shown in 

 an engraving, in History of Gardening in England, 



1 History of Gardening in England , pp. 78, 120, 128. 



