Notes Crowhitrst, Surrey 201 



that there should exist in places of the same name 

 two such noble trees as are found in the church- 

 yards of the two Crowhursts, the one in Surrey, the 

 other in Sussex. This identity in name has, on 

 several occasions, led to confusion. Of the two, 

 the Surrey tree is the larger. In Brailey's His- 

 tory of Surrey?" written so lately as 1850, it is 

 stated that the yew-tree near the east end of the 

 church 'measures 10 yards 9 inches in girth at the 

 height of 5 feet from the ground. The interior 

 is hollow, arid has been fitted up with a table in the 

 centre, and benches around. The roof, however, 

 as it may be termed, has fallen in.' Jennings, in 

 1877, gives its girth as 31 feet. In April 1890, the 

 Rev. Mr. Curteis and I found that it measured 

 at 4 feet from the ground, 3 1 feet 8 inches, and at 



5 feet from the ground, 32 feet 6 inches, so that it 

 has grown 8 inches in girth in forty years. The 

 trunk is hollow, the space in the interior measures 



6 feet across, and there are seats all round. The 

 shell is thin, but there is a considerable amount of 

 living wood, and evidences of extensive cicatrisation 

 of large branches, which have been cut away, close 

 to the trunk, probably after a large destruction of 

 the top which took place in 1845. The rector, 

 Mr. Curteis, informs me that an old parish record 

 in the church states that its girth, in the time of 

 Charles the First, was 10 yards, and this has been 



1 Vol. iv. p. 132. 



