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' 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[3] 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Since foreign timber has almost entirely superseded home-grown wood, the remarkable qualities of this most durable and beautiful timber have been almost forgotten, though, if we may believe what Evelyn, Loudon,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.
