Cuckolds Haven

A tour through the whole Island of Great Britain – Daniel Defoe (1748). P104 “From hence we pursued a By-track, in order to see a famous Yew-tree, which stands in a Field called Cuckolds Haven, and is a very surprising production of Nature, and which I shall attempt to describe: It has a strait smooth Stem, about 10 Feet high, from which the Branches extend in Circles above each other, like the Divisions of a Pineapple, and of that Shape, and of equal Exactness. The Figure of the Tree is much more beautiful than could have been made by Art of Man.
The Branches from Top to Bottom are so thick, that a Bird can scarce creep through them in any Part; and every Shoot and Fibre put out the same Length each Year, and are of so bright and pleasant a Green in all Seasons, that at some Distance the Cloathing of the Tree appears like Velvet.
There is a Hedge planted round it for a Fence, and many People have thought it worth their while to ride 20 Miles to view it. Upon Sight of this Curiosity, and Thousands of other Trees of the same Species in its Neighbourhood, I could not but lament, that Avarice should so far prevail, especially with Gentlemen, as to consent to grant what I call a dead Warrant for the selling of many noble stately ones, in the Height of their Glory, which for some Hundred of Years had been an Ornament to the Places where they grew, when perhaps one of the largest of them, which in a Garden or Park would be esteemed above any Price, is sold for no more than 20 or 30 Shillings, to make Naves for Wheels.
Allen Meredith’s handwritten notes add the following: “This noble tree suffered so much in the hard frost of 1739, that, when I saw it last, many of the branches were lopt off, as dead, and others were quite killed; so that the beauty of it is now irretrievably lost.” I have been unable to corroborate this reference.