810 SYLVAN WINTER. 



' such another monster.' At Hensor, Bucking- 

 hamsHre, there "was one twenty-seven feet in 

 diameter, or about eighty-one feet in girth ! Of 

 the Dibden Yew just referred to, Mr. Grascoigne 

 Roy informed us, in 1879, that it had disappeared, 

 but that there was close to the spot where the 

 old tree stood, ' a juvenile Yew, of something over 

 a hundred years old,' possibly a seedling from the 

 old one. But about the same time a correspondent 

 at Perth, Mr. James Gaudie, informed us that the 

 famous Fortingall Yew, referred to by Gilpin as 

 being fifty-six and a half feet in circumference, 

 was then (in 1879) still in existence. It is sup- 

 posed to be between 2500 and 2700 years of age ! 

 although it should be mentioned that, according 

 to a theory expressed by Sir Robert Ohristison in 

 a paper on ' The Exact Measurement of Trees,' 

 read to the Edinburgh Botanical Society in July, 

 1879 — a paper printed in their ' Transactions ' — 

 the age of this Yew would have been 3000 years 

 in 1768-9, and consequently more than 3100 years 

 old now ! This wonderful tree has given a wide 

 reputation to the place where it grows, as is 

 testified by the lines, — 



