1 94 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and 'Ireland 



total girth at 3 feet from the ground is 19 feet 

 3 inches. The main trunk measures 9 feet 6 inches 

 at 3 feet. The others are much smaller. The 

 church bears the date of 1522. A plate of it in 

 the Gentleman's Magazine of June 1808 shows the 

 yew-tree, but of much less size, and having only one 

 stem. This must be an extreme instance of artistic 

 licence, for it is scarcely possible that the two 

 smaller stems can have grown in the space of 

 eighty-eight years. It is fair to presume that this 

 is one of the few instances in which the church and 

 the tree are of the same age. 



Buckland. The tree in the churchyard, about a 

 mile from Dover, is thus described by the Rev. 

 W. T. Bree : 1 ' About the middle of last century 

 the tree was shattered by lightning, which at the 

 same time demolished also the steeple of the 

 church, close to which it stands. To this cata- 

 strophe, no doubt, is to be attributed, in a great 

 measure, much of the rude and grotesque appear- 

 ance which it now presents. At a yard from the 

 ground, the butt, which is hollow, and on one side 

 extremely tortuous and irregular, protruding its 

 "knotted fangs" like knees at the height of some 

 feet from the surface, measures 24 feet in circum- 

 ference. It is split from the bottom into two 

 portions ; one of which, at the height of about 

 6 feet, again divides naturally into two parts ; so 



1 London, Mag. Nat, Hist., vol. vi. p. 47. 



