pPant "bore, "begeT^V* '^^ Isijricy*, 59 1 



berries poisonous, but thinks non-ruminating animals are injured 

 by eating the foliage. He tells us that " Nicandcr, in his booke of 

 counter-poisons, doth reckon the Yew-tree among the venomous 

 ]->lants, setting downe also a remedy, and that in these words, as 

 Gorraius hath translated them: — 



' Shun the poys'nous Yew, the which on Oeata grows, 

 Like to the Fine, it causes bitter death, 

 Unlesse besides they use pure wine that flowes 

 From empty'd cups, thou drinke, when as thy breath 

 Begins to fade, and passage of thy life 

 Grows straight.' " 



Virgil attributed the notoriously unwholesome qualities of the honey 

 of Corsica to the bees feeding upon the Yew, and he warns bee- 

 keepers to be careful that no Yew-trees grow near their hives. 

 Owing to its being so frequently found in churchyards, a ghastly 

 superstition has arisen respecfting this sinister tree : it is said that 

 it preys and invigorates itself upon the dead who lie beneath its 

 sombre shade. Thus, in ' In Mentor iam,' we read : — 



" Old Yew, wliich graspest at the stones 

 That name the underlying dead, 

 Thy fibres net the dreamless head, 

 Thy roots are wrapt about the bones." 



Even in the principal use the Yew was put to, the tree maintained 

 its connecflion with death, for from its wood man fashioned an instru- 

 ment of warfare and destru(ftion. Its great pliancy and toughness 

 made it particularly suitable for bows, and for this purpose it was 

 unrivalled. Virgil tells us that in his time " the Yews were bent 

 into Ituraean bows "; Chaucer speaks of " the Shooter Yew ;" and 

 Browne writes of 



" The warlike Yewgh by which more than the lance 

 The strong-armed English spirits conquered France." 



Camden has recorded a grim legend in conne(ftion with the name 

 of Halifax. It seems that a certain amorous clergyman fell in love 

 with a pretty maid who refused his addresses. Maddened by her 

 refusal he cut off her head, which being hung upon a Yew-tree 

 till it was quite decayed, the tree was reputed as sacred, not only 

 whilst the virgin's head hung on it, but as long as the tree itself 

 lasted : to which the people went in pilgrimage, plucking and 

 bearing away branches of it as a holy relique, whilst there re- 

 mained any of the trunk ; persuading themselves that those small 

 veins and filaments resembling hairs were the hairs of the virgin. 

 But what is yet stranger, the resort to this place, then called Houton, 

 a despicable village, occasioned the building of the now famous town 

 of Halifax, in Yorkshire, the name of which imports " holy hair." 



In the cloister of \'reton, in Brittany, there grew a Yew-tree 



which was said to have sprung from the staff of St. Martin. Be- 

 neath it the Breton princes were accustomed to offer up a prayer 

 before entering the church. This tree was regarded with the 



