THE YEW TREE. 407 
Many yew trees throughout the country are celebrated for 
extreme old age. The lapse of a century generally makes no 
great change on a yew of considerable size-——much less indeed 
than on any other tree. Of all the old trees we have seen of 
this species, perhaps that at Fountain Abbey, in Yorkshire, is 
the most remarkable. Tradition reports it to have been an 
old spreading tree, under the shadow of which the monks 
encamped before the foundation of the abbey in 1132, the 
widespread ruins of which now occupy many acres. Many of 
the boughs of the tree are still covered with luxuriant foliage ; 
the trunk presents a gnarled and knotty appearance, grooved 
and wrinkled by time, overcome and bent down by the weight 
of years ; it ranges in circumference from twenty to twenty- 
eight feet, indicating an existence at a very remote period. 
In Scotland, the Fortingal yew stands in a churchyard in 
the vicinity of a small Roman camp, in a romantic district at 
the entrance to Glen-Lyon, in Perthshire. Various writers of 
the last century have described the trunk of this tree at 
different dimensions, all recording it upwards of fifty feet. 
The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for 1833 states that “the 
side of the trunk now existing gives a diameter of more than 
fifteen feet, so that it is easy to conceive that the circumfer- 
ence of the trunk, when entire, should have exceeded fifty 
feet. Happily, further depredations have been prevented by 
means of an iron rail, which now surrounds the sacred spot ; 
and the venerable tree, which in all probability was a flourish- 
ing tree at the commencement of the Christian era, may yet 
survive for centuries to come.” 
The timber of the yew is celebrated for its strength and 
elasticity ; it is more enduring than any other wood indi- 
genous to Europe. When employed as a post in the open 
ground, it has been known to last for ages, with very little 
decay, even at that most trying and corruptible point, the 
surface of the ground. The heart-wood is of a rich brown 
colour, and contrasts with the sap-wood, which is white. It 
is finely grained, capable of a high polish, retains dye, and 
forms a good representation of ebony. It is esteemed by the 
