Situated under the ramparts of Dolforwyn Castle, near Abermule in the Welsh county of Powys in the United Kingdom, Yew tree cottage is a part 17th century timber-framed structure which once belonged to the celebrated antiquarian John Davies Knatchbull Lloyd.
It is home to the 'Dolforwyn yew' (taxus baccata), listed among the 850 most significant yews of England and Wales. The Dolforwyn yew has a girth of more than 18 feet (5.5 m) making it, according to dating graphs, more than a thousand years old, and much older than the castle above. The Dolforwyn yew is female and has small white flowers followed by very poisonous red berries. It is associated with a well 13 feet (4.0 m) distant, which has a depth of more than 20 feet (6.1 m) hewn through solid bedrock. It has been conjectured that this may be a Holy well since sacred wells were often associated with yews.
Famous quotes containing the words yew, tree and/or cottage:
“Reptilian green the wrinkled throat,
Green as a bough of yew the beard;
He bent his head, and so I smote;”
—Yvor Winters (1900–1968)
“A tree may grow a thousand feet tall, but its leaves will return to its roots.”
—Chinese proverb.
“It might be seen by what tenure men held the earth. The smallest stream is mediterranean sea, a smaller ocean creek within the land, where men may steer by their farm bounds and cottage lights. For my own part, but for the geographers, I should hardly have known how large a portion of our globe is water, my life has chiefly passed within so deep a cove. Yet I have sometimes ventured as far as to the mouth of my Snug Harbor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)