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124 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
which is said to be 350 years old. There is a very high one of semicircular form
enclosing the approach to the front door of Earl Bathurst's house at Cirencester.
Others 1 occur at Pewsey in Wiltshire, Melbourne in Derbyshire, Holme Lacy
near Hereford, Hadham in Hertford, Albury Park near Guildford, etc.
An interesting account of the use of yew in topiary work is given by Kent, 1 who
gives two illustrations of the remarkable effects produced by this art at Elvaston
Castle. Leven's Hall, 2 Westmoreland, is also noted for the extraordinary forms into
which the yew has been forced to grow. In a recent work 8 by Elgood and Jekyll
pictures are given of several remarkable effects produced by the yew, notably the
Yew Alley at Rockingham, the Yew Walk at Crathes, and the Yew Arbour at
Lyde.
There are some remarkable clipped yews in the garden at Gwydyr Castle, in
the valley of the Conway, a beautiful old place now belonging to Lord Carrington,
which have been the subject of careful attention from Mr. Evans, the gardener, for
forty years. The largest is in the form of an immense round-topped mushroom,
36 yards round and about 36 feet high, with a perfectly smooth, close, regular
surface. In the west garden at the same place there is a double row of yews, eleven
on each side, of the same form, but very much smaller.
TIMBER
Since foreign timber has almost entirely superseded home-grown wood, the
remarkable qualities of this most durable and beautiful timber have been almost
forgotten, though, if we may believe what Evelyn, Loudon, Walker, and other old
authors tell us, it was formerly highly valued, not only for bow-making, but for all
purposes where strength and durability, when exposed to wet, were required.
At the present time, though I have made many inquiries, I cannot find a
cabinetmaker in London who knows or uses the wood ; it is rarely to be found in
timber yards, and I was told by one of the principal timber merchants in York that
I was, in his forty years' experience, the first person who had ever asked for it.
It has little or no selling value, and may be bought occasionally for about half
the price of oak.
In various old houses, however, examples may be found of its use for furniture,
panelling, and inlaying, which show what the wood is worth, when well selected and
thoroughly seasoned, to people who do not mind a little trouble.
Evelyn says that for posts to be set in the ground and for everlasting axle-trees
there is none to be compared to it, and that cabinetmakers and inlayers most gladly
employ it.
Loudon quotes Varennes de Feuilles, who states that the wood, before it has
been seasoned and when cut into veneers and immersed some months in pond water,
will take a purple-violet colour.
1 Veitch's Man. Conifem, 1 37 (1900). 2 Card. Chron. 1 874, p. 264.
3 Some English Gardens, pp. 34, 42, 107 (1904).
Taxus
Dr. Walker J speaks of the yew as a tree which grows well in the shade of rocks
and precipices, especially near the sea-shore. "No timber is planted in Scotland that
gives so high a price as that of yew and laburnum." He mentions a yew that
grew on a sea-cliff, in the small stormy island of Bernera near the Sound of Mull,
which, when cut into logs, loaded a large six-oared boat, and afforded timber to form
a fine staircase in the house of Lochnell.
Sir Charles Strickland tells me that yew wood which is occasionally dug up in
the bogs and fens of East Yorkshire is of a pinkish grey colour, and the most
beautiful English wood he knows, but the samples of it which Henry has procured in
Ireland are much darker in colour.
Miss Edwards states that in the Pyrenees water vessels are made of yew wood,
which have the property of keeping the water cool in hot weather, and that there is
a flourishing manufacture of such vessels bound with brass hoops at Osse.
Marshall is quoted by Loudon to the effect that about 1796 yew trees at Boxhill
were cut down and sold to cabinetmakers at high prices for inlaying, one tree being
valued at ^"100, and half of it actually sold for £50. Boutcher says that, from his
own experience, bedsteads made of yew wood will not be approached by bugs.
Mathieu 2 states that in France the wood is sought for by turners, sculptors, and
makers of instruments and toys.
The thin straight shoots of the yew which are cut by gipsies in the south of
England make most excellent whip sticks, lighter than, and quite as tough as holly.
I believe that yew would also make first-rate handles for polo sticks and golf clubs,
though makers of these articles do not as yet seem to have used it.
Boulger 8 says that in the library of the India Office there is a Persian
illuminated manuscript on thin sheets of yew, and it also makes very ornamental
boards for bookbinding.
As an example of what can be done with yew wood, I may refer to Macquoid's
History of English Furniture, where a coloured illustration (plate iv.) is given of
an extremely handsome armchair in Hornby Castle, the property of the Duke
of Leeds. Macquoid says: "The date is about 1550. It is made of yew, which
adds to its rarity, for up to this time it was practically penal to employ yew wood
for any other purpose than the manufacture of the national weapon ; in this instance
the wood has become close, as hard as steel, and of a beautiful dark amber colour."
At Hatfield House, the historic mansion of the Marquess of Salisbury, the
small drawing-room is panelled entirely with yew wood, the doors being also made
of fine burry pieces, but the workmanship in this case is not perfect, and the colour
of the wood has been spoilt by varnish.
At Dallam Tower, Westmoreland, the seat of Sir Maurice Bromley-Wilson,
the staircase is made of yew wood grown on the property.
Trees are occasionally found in which the whole body of the log consists of
small burry growths something like that of maple, and when this is mixed with
contorted grain of various shades of pink the effect is very good. But such trees
1 Economical History of the Hebrides, vol. ii. pp. 205, 240(1812).
" Flore Forestiere, 5 11 (1897). 3 Wood, 346 (1902).