MAECH 49 



tions of the extreme age of individual trees of this 

 species are to be accepted with considerable distrust, 

 if not absolute incredulity, the yew does possess the 

 property of prolonging its years in a manner denied 

 to any other British forest tree. The central stem may 

 decay it very often does so ; but the shell remains full 

 of vitality, forms fresh growths which swell into new 

 stems; and these, after independent existence for a 

 century or so, sometimes coalesce into one huge trunk, 

 out of all apparent proportion to the height of the 

 tree. 



The most remarkable yew groves with which I am 

 acquainted are the Great and Little Yews on Lord 

 Radnor's property near Salisbury. Many acres here 

 are covered by a close canopy of funereal foliage, most 

 interesting and impressive, but not beautiful, and as 

 little resembling a gladsome greenwood as any com- 

 pany of trees might be. More charming, because more 

 scattered, are the great yews on Merrow Down and 

 at Newland's Corner, between Guildford and Dorking, 

 marking, it is said, the Pilgrim's Way to Canterbury. 

 But they, or their progenitors, can scarcely have been 

 planted for the convenience of the Wife of Bath, the 

 Reeve, the Man of Law, and the rest of Chaucer's 

 company, forasmuch as Domesday Book holds record 

 of a great yew forest which grew upon this chalk 

 upland in 1080-86. 



Melancholy as the yew must ever be, it must be 



owned that it does not always get a fair chance. A 



solitary yew is a forlorn object, pathetic in its enforced 



celibacy. For the yew is a dioecious tree, and unless 



D 



