60 Yew-Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



measuring 10 feet 4 inches at 3 feet from the 

 ground. A note says : * Old buildings taken down 

 lately near the site of trees were of eleventh 

 century/ This tree is less in girth than that at 

 Pitmedden, known to be planted in 1675. The age 

 of the buildings, therefore, is no guide to that of 

 the tree. 



* Tradition,' says Mr. Farrer, 1 'would seem to 

 contain nothing incredible when it asserts that the 

 yews on Kinglye Bottom, near Chichester, were 

 on their present site when the sea-kings from the 

 North landed on the coast of Sussex.' Had he 

 said that ' yews were there ' the statement would 

 have been accurate, but that 'the yews,' meaning 

 those still existing, were then in being, is too large 

 a demand on our credulity, as there is no tree at 

 that place which exceeds 15-4 in girth, or possibly 

 about five hundred years in age. 



Tradition is again at fault in the case of a tree 

 at Yew Park, Clontarf, Co. Dublin, where there is a 

 fine specimen, 12 feet in girth, of which the owner, 

 H. Brougham Leech, Esq., LL.D., writes: ' It is 

 not surrounded by young shoots ; it presents the 

 appearance of a tree in the midst of a small planta- 

 tion.' (The dense shade thus produced sufficiently 

 explains the absence of shoots on the trunk.) ' The 

 branches project horizontally, and touch the ground, 

 and then, without taking root, strike upwards again. 



1 Longman's Magazine, 1883. 



