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above Nunwell, the only spot in the island where I have seen the yew 

 even apparently in a state of nature, but 1 suspect from their limited 

 number and vicinity to the house that they were planted there long 

 ago. Everywhere for miles around Winchester, on the downs and in 

 woods, at Compton, Hursley, Farley, &c. Extremely common on the 

 high downs along the London and Portsmouth road. Very frequent 

 in Froxfield Hangers and other elevated and steep woods about Pe- 

 tersfield, with its common associate the beech. Very large trees, 

 some evidently of high antiquity, occur in the woods and chalky 

 slopes about Hambledon. Extremely frequent in most of the north- 

 ern parts of the county, but I think much less so, if not decidedly 

 rare, in the south-western part, in the New Forest, and Christchurch 

 hundreds. The yew is a tree so frequent as to be a beautiful and dis- 

 tinguishing feature in the upland scenery of Hants, and some of the 

 adjacent counties, as Sussex, Surrey and Wilts, its deep green, nearly 

 black foliage finely contrasting with the brighter verdure of the beech, 

 oak, and other deciduous trees, whilst in the picturesque form of its 

 wide-spreading, depressed head, and short, gnarled, sturdy, cinnamon- 

 red trunk, it may vie with the cedar of Lebanon itself. The yew is 

 commonly seen with us as single trees, irregularly dotting the land- 

 scape, sprinkled over the open downs, or rising amid the hedge-rows 

 or from the precipitous face of some hanging wood, but it occasionally 

 forms groves by itself of small extent, the most remarkable of which 

 that I am acquainted with is the yew wood at Kingley Bottom, near 

 Chichester, much resorted to in the summer by parties of pleasure for 

 its picturesque beauty and singularity. The yews on our downs and 

 in the woods are mostly permitted to flourish unscathed by the axe, 

 notwithstanding the value of the timber to the cabinet maker, and 

 hence many noble specimens may be seen in the wild state, whilst on 

 the main land of the county there is hardly a parish church of ancient 

 date without its venerable yew in front of the door or porch, some of 

 which churchyard trees are of extreme age and colossal dimensions. 

 The great yew in Selborne churchyard, one by no means of very un- 

 usual size, was found to measure a year or two back 24^ feet in cir- 

 cumference at four feet from the ground. The very ancient yew in 

 the churchyard of South Hayling, in Hayling Island, is, to the best 

 of my recollection, a still larger tree than the one at Selborne, and 

 doubtless others may be found in the county exceeding both these in 

 dimensions. It is not a little remarkable, that whilst we find a yew 

 planted and religiously preserved in front of nearly every ancient pa- 

 rish church in the county, I cannot call to mind the existence of this 



