THE YEW TREE. 451 



bouring hollies, I feel not the wintery blast ; as the yew trees, which 

 are close at hand, are to me a shield against its fury ; and, in fact, 

 they offer me a protection little inferior to that of the house itself. 



I have not been sparing in the arrangement of ornamental yew 

 trees. Just sixty yards from the bridge which joins the island to the 

 main, there is a yew-tree crescent, three hundred feet in extent; 

 and not far from this, there are some fine clumps of the same plant, 

 producing a very pleasing effect. Should he who will succeed to 

 them when I am low in dust, have the philosophy to set at nought 

 the modern disapprobation of ornamental planting in lines and circles, 

 he will always command the sweet warbling of unnumbered songsters, 

 from earliest' spring to latest summer : for the yew tree is a kind 

 friend to the feathered race ; and the wren and the hedge-sparrow 

 will sing sweetly amidst its foliage through the autumn, and even 

 after the winter season has set in. 



The cultivation of the yew tree is sure and simple. It will thrive 

 in any soil that is clear of swamp ; but, the richer the soil, the richer 

 is the appearance of its foliage ; and if the planter will trench his 

 ground from two to three feet deep, throwing back into the bottom 

 the worst of what has been removed, and reserving the best for the 

 upper stratum, he is sure to be handsomely requited by a rapid 

 growth of the trees, 



Although the yew tree is a hardy plant, and fond of cold regions 

 (amantes frigora taxi\ still it will be much more vigorous in the shel- 

 tered valley, than on the bleak hill, exposed to the wintry blast. Our 

 western gales here in Yorkshire press far too keenly on its foliage, and 

 render the side which is exposed to their fury as thin and wretched 

 in appearance, as the face of a metropolitan alderman would be on 

 Easter Sunday morning, after having struggled through forty long days 

 of unmitigated fasting. Provided you do not care about having your 

 yew tree in all the exuberance of uncurbed vegetation, you may 

 apply the pruning-knife and shears with a safe and an unsparing 

 hand ; for the yew tree will submit to curtailment with good effect, 

 and without any apparent diminution of vitality. If we clip its 

 southern side in imitation of a wall, and allow that which faces the 

 north to flourish in its natural state, we shall have from the same line 

 of trees a walk impervious to the blast of Boreas for ourselves, and a 



