58 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



in diameter, when, with De Candolle, he would 

 allow i line. 



Age deduced from tradition and proximity of 

 ancient buildings. It is never safe to trust to 

 computations from traditional accounts. There is 

 always an unconscious tendency to exaggerate the 

 age of certain objects, which through their great 

 antiquity become, as the narrator supposes, more 

 wonderful or more venerable the older they are 

 made to appear. Abundant evidences of this 

 tendency are to be found, not only amongst 

 classical writers, but amongst those of more recent 

 times. 



The doubtful character of traditional accounts 

 cannot be more strikingly shown than in the case 

 of the Abercairney tree in Perthshire, which is said 

 to have at one time sheltered the Marquis of 

 Montrose. The tree is 10 feet 7 inches in girth 

 at 5 feet from the ground, a point when it divides, 

 and is therefore probably not much over two 

 hundred years old. Between 1640 and 1890 two 

 hundred and fifty years have elapsed. The tree, 

 if it existed, must have been very small at the 

 former date, and could scarcely have afforded 

 much shelter. 1 



The practice of ascribing to a tree the age of an 

 adjacent building, so common in the present day, 



1 'Old and Remarkable Yew-trees in Scotland,' Trans, Royal Scot. Arb, 

 Soc. t 1893. 



