From The Warminster Herald, Saturday 11 June 1870
It may interest some of your readers to know the dimensions of a very remarkable yew growing on the Marquis of Bath’s estate at Temple Farm, Corsley, Wilts: Height, 50 ft.; circumference of branches, 164 ft.; spread of branches from north to south, 53 ft.; and from east to west, 60 ft.; girth of stem at 1 ft. from the base, 32 ft.; smallest girth of stem, 24 ft. 7 in.; the stem at 7 ft. up branches into several limbs. The age of yew trees may be pretty nearly calculated by allowing one century for every foot in diameter of the stem; thus this grand old tree may be guessed at from ten to eleven hundred years old, and is healthy, growing, and in full foliage, forming a perfect cone in shape, and a lease of its life for another century or two might safely be taken. I should be glad to learn through the columns of Land And Water if any of your readers could give the dimensions of a larger yew than the one I have just recorded. George Berry, Longleat, May 3, 1870.