LARGE YEWS. 205 



was discovered lying along like a mighty tree, the 

 thicker part being of the finest quality, and the 

 ramifications of a poorer, till, at the extremities, it 

 was not worthy even to clean stoves. At other 

 times the searchers have been altogether at fault, 

 for a long time together. There was 

 *^t^^ a period when the value of this plum- 

 bago was so little known that the 

 shepherds used it freely to mark their sheep : and 

 next, the proprietors were obtaining from thirty to 

 forty shillings a pound for the lead of one single 

 '' sop " which yielded upwards of twenty-eight 

 tons. Those were the days when houses were built 

 at the entrance, where the workmen were obliged 

 to change their clothes, under inspection, lest they 

 should be tempted to carry away any of the precious 

 stuff" in their pockets. 



Under the mine, (the wadj and a little onward, 

 amidst the copsewood, are the dark tops of the 

 Borrowdale Yews to be seen, — the " fraternal four," 

 which, as Wordsworth tells us, form " one solemn 

 and capacious grove." The size attained by the 

 yew in this district is astonishing. One which for 

 many years lay prostrate at the other end of Bor- 

 rowdale, measured nine yards in circumference, and 

 contained ],460 feet of wood. The famous Lorton 

 Yew (p. 129.) has about the same girth; and one 

 of these four measures seven yards round, at four 

 feet from the ground. 



At Seatoller, the roads which part off* right and 

 left, are familiar to the traveller who has accom- 

 plished the preceding excursions, — the one leading 

 to Rosthwaite and the other to Honister Crag. 



