THE YEW. 



307 



but it is now much scarcer. It does not rank 

 among timber-trees ; and being thus in a degree 

 unprivileged, and unprotected by forest laws, it 

 has often been made booty of by those who durst 

 not lay violent hands on the Oak or the Ash. 

 But still in many parts of the forest some noble 

 specimens of this tree are left. One I have 

 often visited, which is a tree of peculiar beauty. 

 It immediately divides into several massy limbs, 

 each of which, hanging in grand, loose foliage, 

 spreads over a large compass of ground, and yet 

 the whole tree forms a close, compact body ; that 

 is, its boughs are not so separated as to break into 

 distinct parts. It cannot boast the size of the 

 Yew at Fotheringal, near Taymouth, in Scot- 

 land, which measures fifty-six feet and a half in 

 circumference ; nor indeed the size of many others 

 on record; but it has sufficient size for all the 

 purposes of landscape, and in point of picturesque 

 beauty it probably equals any one of them. It 

 stands not far from the banks of the Lymington 

 river, on the left bank as you look towards the 

 sea, between Roydon Farm and Boldre Church. 

 It occupies a small knoll, surrounded with other 

 trees, some of which are Yews, but of inferior 

 beauty. A little stream washes the base of the 

 knoll, and winding round forms it into a penin- 

 sula. If any one should have the curiosity to 

 visit it, from this description, and by the help of 

 these landmarks, I doubt not he may find it, at 

 any time within the space of these two or three 

 centuries, in great perfection, if it suffer no exter- 

 nal injury. If such trees were common, they 

 would recover the character of the Yew-tree among 

 the admirers of picturesque beauty." 



