Notes Melksham Court, Muckross Abbey 235 



William Tyndale, the Reformer. The owner of 

 Melksham Court in the time of Charles i. found 

 refuge in this tree three days and nights, from the 

 pursuit of his enemies, who had burnt his house. 



It is needless to say that beyond this fact, and 

 the actual existence of a tree in the same locality, 

 at the present time, all the details of its early 

 history are drawn from the author's inner con- 

 sciousness ; as is the case with many other histories 

 of very old trees. 



The Vicar of Stinchcombe, the Rev. R. L. Blosse, 

 informs me that the tree has decayed, and has all 

 but disappeared, a young tree growing up from its 

 remains. 



Muckross Abbey. 'As the abbey was in exist- 

 ence, and celebrated as a sanctuary in 1 1 80, the tree, 

 which is supposed to be coeval with it, must be 

 upwards of seven hundred years old.' 1 'Arthur 

 Young, who saw it about 1780, states it to be, 

 without exception, the most prodigious yew he ever 

 beheld.' 



Its trunk at that time was 2 feet in diameter at 

 14 feet high. In 1836, ' the tree stands quite erect; 

 the trunk is destitute of branches for some way up ; 

 the head continues to grow.' 



There could not well be found a more striking 

 instance of the error of assuming that a tree is of 

 the same age as the building near which it grows. 



1 Loudon, iv. 2078. 



