CHAP. CXII. TAXA'cEiE. TA'XUS. 2073 



botanists, and more especially by Mr. Bowman, in an article in the Magazine 

 of Natural History , vol. i., new series. Mr. Bowman considers a line a year, 

 in the case of the yew, not nearly enough ; having tested it with two yew trees, 

 the age of which he knew, and found that, in the one case, the tree was made 

 200 years, and in the other 050 years, less than their real age. The experi- 

 ments of this gentleman tend to show that De Candolle's average of a line 

 a year makes old yews too young, and young yews too old : for the latter 

 he would allow two, and in case of rich soil even three, lines a year till the 

 plants had trunks 2 ft. in diameter, when, with De Candolle, he would allow 

 one line a year. So much, however, depends on the nature of the soil in 

 which the tree grows, that, for our own part, we can place but very little 

 reliance on any data of this kind. 



Biography of celebrated Yew Trees. We shall select a few of the more 

 remarkable of these, arranging them according to their celebrity, and com- 

 mencing with those of England. We think we shall be justified in doing 

 this, from the great interest which attaches to the yew tree ; not only in 

 Britain, but throughout Europe. 



The Yew Trees at Fountains Abbey, in Yorkshire, are well known. This 

 abbey was founded in 1 132, by Thurston, Archbishop of York, for certain 

 monks, who separated themselves from the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary's, 

 in York, in order to adopt the more severe discipline of St. Bernard, who had 

 just then founded the Cistertian order at Clairvaux, in Champagne. The 

 history of Fountains Abbey is minutely related by Burton, from the narra- 

 tive of Hugh, a monk of Kirkstall, which is said to be now preserved in the 

 library of the Royal Society : — "At Christmas, the archbishop, being at 

 Ripon, assigned to the monks some land in the patrimony of St. Peter, 

 about three miles west of that place, for the erecting of a monastery. This 

 spot of ground had never been inhabited, unless by wild beasts ; being over- 

 grown with wood and brambles, lying between two steep hills and rocks, 

 covered with wood on all sides, more proper for a retreat for wild beasts 

 than the human species. This was called Skeldale ; that is, the vale of the 

 Skell, from a rivulet of that name running through it from the west to the 

 eastward part. The prior of St. Mary's, at York, was chosen abbot by the 

 monks, being the first of this monastery of Fountains, with whom they 

 withdrew into this uncouth desert, without any house to shelter them in 

 that winter season, or provisions to subsist on, but entirely depending on 

 Divine Providence. There stood a large elm tree in the midst of the vale, 

 on the lower branches of which they put some thatch and straw ; and under 

 that they lay, ate, and prayed ; the bishop, for a time, supplying them with 

 bread, and the rivulet with drink. Part of the day some spent in making 

 wattles, to erect a little oratory; whilst others cleared some ground to make 

 a little garden. But it is supposed that they soon changed the shelter of 

 their elm for that of seven yew trees, growing on the declivity of the hill on 

 the south side of the abbey, all standing at this present time (1658), except 

 the largest, which was blown down about the middle of the last century. 

 They are of extraordinary size : the trunk of one of them is 26 ft. 6 in. in 

 circumference at 3 ft. from the ground ; and they stand so near each other 

 as to form a cover almost equal to a thatched roof. Under these trees, we 

 are told by tradition, the monks resided till they had built the monastery." 

 (Burton's Monast.,fo\. 14)1.; Strutfs Sylva, p. 118.; and Sopwith's Foun- 

 tains Abbey, p. 1.) The name of Fountains Abbey is derived by some from 

 Fountaines, in Burgundy, the birthplace of St. Bernard; and by others from 

 the word skell, which, signifying a fountain, was written in Latin, by the monks, 

 fontibus, and thence corrupted into the present name. (Sop., 1. c.) A por- 

 trait of one of these celebrated trees is given by Strutt, from which our 

 fig. 1984. is a copy. The tree is upwards of 50 ft. high ; and, if it existed, 

 and was a large tree, previously to 1132, it must, in 1837, be upwards of 

 800 years old. 



The BucJcland Yew. This tree (of which fig. 1985. is a portrait) is situ- 



