OF SELBORNE. 291 



LETTER V. 



IN the church-yard of this village is a yew-tree, whose aspect 

 bespeaks it to be of a great age : it seems to have seen several 

 centuries, and is probably coeval with the church, and there- 

 fore may be deemed an antiquity * : the body is squat, short, 

 and thick, and measures twenty-three feet in the girth, sup- 

 porting an head of suitable extent to it's bulk. This is a 

 male tree, which in the spring sheds clouds of dust, and fills 

 the atmosphere around with it's farina. 



As far as we have been able to observe, the males of this 

 species become much larger than the females ; and it has so 

 fallen out that most of the yew-trees in the church-yards of 

 this neighbourhood are males : but this must have been 

 matter of mere accident, since men, when they first planted 

 yews, little dreamed that there were sexes in trees. 



In a yard, in the midst of the street, till very lately, grew a 

 middle-sized female tree of the same species, which commonly 

 bore great crops of berries. By the high winds usually pre- 



* [The frequent occurrence of ancient yews in churchyards may be 

 accounted for on the following consideration. There is no doubt that 

 they were often planted near the temples of our pagan forefathers. On . 

 the introduction of Christianity the first Christian churches were built on 

 the site of the pagan temples, for the obvious reason that the spot which 

 had already been hallowed in the minds of the people by religious rites 

 would still be regarded with reverence on its becoming the seat of the 

 new religion. The yews which had been thus located within the sacred 

 precincts would still be preserved with similar associations. The yew in 

 Selborne churchyard may, I believe, boast of such an origin. 



The question is frequently asked, " What do you suppose is the age of 

 this grand old tree ?" An approximate solution of this question is not 

 so difficult as may be supposed. I have repeatedly measured the trunk, 

 and find that at 1 foot from the ground its circumference is 23 feet, and 

 at 4 feet it is 25. Taking, therefore, 24 as the mean, and following De 

 Candolle's method, as tested by Mr. Bowman, the result would give 

 about 1200 years as near the probable age, and consequently the year 

 650-660 as the time at which it may have been planted. See Mr. 

 Bowman's interesting paper in Mag. of Nat. Hist. 2nd series, vol. i. 

 pp. 28-85. T. B.] 



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