190 



TAXUS. 



it may be indigenous, but from the price of a bow of Yew in 1514, 

 viz. 2s., Mr. Raine has concluded that the tree must have been very 

 scarce in the North of England. Hist. N. Durham, p. 292. — There 

 is a very fine Yew in the garden adjoining the old Abbey of Dry- 

 burgh, which is supposed to have been planted at the time the Abbey 

 was founded in 1136. On the 21st June, 1763, it measured 6 feet 

 1 1 inches in girth. " It was nearly of the same girth 8 feet high, 

 where it divided into branches, but measured at the ground 9 feet 

 94 inches. It was not much above 20 feet high, but appeared 

 thriving and vigorous, though probably planted before the Reforma- 

 tion. A person who had known it for sixty years was not sensible of 

 any great alteration in its appearance." Dr. Walker. — In 1835 the 

 height of the stem to the branches was 10 feet 5 inches : the circum- 

 ference at one foot from the ground 1 2 feet : at eight feet from the 

 ground 1 1 feet 2 inches : and the diameter of the circle overspread 

 by the branches was about 50 feet. The tree now (1844) begins to 

 exhibit some symptoms of decay. 



THE CASTLE MILL THAT WAS I 



