EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 241 



I shall be made 

 Ere longe a fleeting shade ; 

 Pray come, 

 And do some honour to my tomb." 



Some of the old Yews in the churchyards and gardens of 

 England have attained a wonderful period of longevity. 

 Gilpin mentions one in the churchyard of Tisbury in Dor- 

 setshire, now standing and in fine foliage, though the trunk 

 is quite hollow, which measures thirty-seven feet in circum- 

 ference, and the limbs are proportionately large. The tree 

 is entered by a rustic gate ; and seventeen persons lately 

 breakfasted in its interior. It is said to have been planted 

 many generations ago by the Arundel family. The famous 

 Yew at Arkenwyke House, which Henry VH. made his 

 place of meeting with Anna Boleyn when she was there, is 

 supposed to be upwards of a thousand years old : it is forty- 

 nine feet high, twenty-seven in circumference, and the 

 branches extend over an area of two hundred and seven feet. 

 There are besides these, a great number of other celebrated 

 Yews in England, of immense size and age, which are pre- 

 served with the greatest care and veneration. 



It is a common saying of the inhabitants of the New For- 

 est in England, says Gilpin, that " a post of Yew will out- 

 last a post of iron." The wood is extremely durable, and 

 being hard and very fine-grained, as well as beautifully varie- 

 gated with reddish or orange veins, it is much prized for in- 

 laying, veneering, and other similar purposes, by the cabi- 

 net-makers abroad. Tables made of it are said to be more 

 beautiful than those of mahogany ; and the wood of the root 

 to vie in beauty with that of the Citron. 



It is also remarkably elastic, and is therefore much valued 



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