THE YEW. 



313 



The Mamhilad Yew, described and figured by 

 Loudon, stands in the churchyard of Mamhilad 

 near Pontypool. It is twenty-nine feet in cir- 

 cumference, and at four feet from the ground 

 divides into six main boughs. The trunk is hol- 

 low, and on the north side has an opening down 

 to the ground, through which is seen another and 

 apparently detached Yew, several feet in dia- 

 meter, covered with bark, and in a state of vigor- 

 ous growth ; it is, in fact, a great tree, and over- 

 tops the old one. 



The Fortingal Yew stands in the churchyard of 

 Fortingal, or the Fort of the Strangers, in the 

 heart of the Grampians, and is in all probability 

 the oldest tree in Scotland. This prodigious 

 tree was measured by Judge Barrington before 

 the year 1770, and is stated by him to have been 

 at that time fifty-two feet in circumference ; 

 when measured by Pennant some years afterwards, 

 it was fifty-six feet six inches in circumference. 

 Persons then alive remembered the time when 

 its trunk was continuous to the height of three 

 feet, but it is now decayed to the ground, and 

 completely divided into two distinct stems, be- 

 tween which, funeral processions formerly used to 

 pass. Dr. Neill says, that since 1770 it has been 

 much injured by the removal of large branches, 

 carried off by the country people for the sake of 

 being made into cups and other relics, which 

 visitors were in the habit of purchasing. "What 

 existed of the trunk in 1833 presented the ap- 

 pearance of a semicircular wall, exclusive of the 

 remains of some decayed portions, which scarcely 

 rose above the ground. It is now surrounded by 

 an iron rail, and this venerable tree, which in all 



