CHAP. CXII.

Taxa'cete. TA'XUS.

2073

botanists, and more especially by Mr. Bowman, in an article in the Magazineof 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 made200 years, and in the other 650 years, less than their real age. The experi-ments of this gentleman tend to show that De Candolle ’s average of a linea year makes old yews too young, and young yews too old: for the latterhe would allow two, and in case of rich soil even three, lines a year till theplants had trunks 2 ft. in diameter, when, with De Candolle , he would allowone line a year. So much, however, depends on the nature of the soil inwhich the tree grows, that, for our own part, we can place but very littlereliance on any data of this kind.

Biography of celebrated Yew Trees . We shall select a few of the moreremarkable of these, arranging them according to their celebrity, and com-mencing with those of England. We think we shall be justified in doingthis, from the great interest which attaches to the yew tree; not only inBritain, but throughout Europe .

The Yew Trees at Fountains Abbey, in Yorkshire , are well known. Thisabbey was founded in 1132, by Thurston, Archbishop of York , for certainmonks, 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 hadjust then founded the Cistertian order at Clairvaux, in Champagne . Thehistory 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 thelibrary of the Royal Society : — “At Christmas, the archbishop, being atRipon, 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. Thisspot 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 beaststhan the human species. This was called Skeldale; that is, the vale of theSkell, from a rivulet of that name running through it from the west to theeastward part. The prior of St. Mary’s, at York , was chosen abbot by themonks, being the first of this monastery of Fountains , with whom theywithdrew into this uncouth desert, without any house to shelter them inthat winter season, or provisions to subsist on, but entirely depending onDivine 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 underthat they lay, ate, and prayed ; the bishop, for a time, supplying them withbread, and the rivulet with drink. Part of the day some spent in makingwattles, to erect a little oratory; whilst others cleared some ground to makea little garden. But it is supposed that they soon changed the shelter oftheir elm for that of seven yew trees, growing on the declivity of the hill onthe south side of the abbey, all standing at this present time (1658), exceptthe 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. incircumference at 3 ft. from the ground; and they stand so near each otheras to form a cover almost equal to a thatched roof. Under these trees, weare told by tradition, the monks resided till they had built the monastery.”( Burton’s Monast., fol. 141.; Strutt's Sylva, p. 118.; and Sopwith’s Foun-tains Abbey, p. 1.) The name of Fountains Abbey is derived by some fromFountaines, in Burgundy, the birthplace of St. Bernard; and by others fromthe word skell, which, signifying a fountain, was written in Latin , by the monks,Jbntibus, 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 ourfig. 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 of800 years old.

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