See TAXUS, BOTANY Index.

Yew trees are remarkable for their duration. There are now growing within 300 yards of the old Gothic ruins of Fountain's abbey, near Rippon, in Yorkshire, seven very large yew trees, commonly called the Seven Sifters, whose exact ages cannot be accurately ascertained, though tradition says that they were standing in the year 1088. It is said also, that when the great Fountain's abbey was building, which is 700 feet long, and was finished in 1283, the masons used to work their stones, during the hot summers, under the shade of these trees. The circumference of the Seven Sifters, when measured by a curious traveller, were of the following sizes:—the smallest tree, round its body, 5 yards 1 foot; four others are from 5½ to 7½ yards; the fifth is 9½ yards; and the seventh is 11 yards 1 foot 7 inches in circumference, being 2 yards 10 inches larger than the great YOR

great yew tree now growing in the churchyard at Greford, in North Wales, which is 9 yards 9 inches. These trees are the largest and oldest in the British dominions.