YEW TREE. 407 



six feet round the largest part of the trunk. We wilJ 

 pass on to a few of less common magnitude. 



Mr. Pennant mentions one in Fotheringal church- 

 yard, in the Highlands, the ruins of which measured 

 fifty-six feet and a half in circumference. Mr. Evelyn 

 speaks of one in the churchyard of Crowhurst, in 

 Surrey, ten yards in circumference ; and of another, a 

 superannuated Yew tree in Braburne churchyard in 

 Kent, measuring fifty-eight feet, and eleven inches 

 round ; giving a diameter of about six yards and a half. 



This author tells an odd story, quoted from Cam- 

 den, relating to the Yew tree, and the origin of the name 

 of Halifax, that may not be uninteresting. 



" One thing more, while I am speaking of this tree : 

 It reminds me of that very odd story I find related by 

 Mr. Camden, of a certain amorous clergyman, that falling 

 in love with a pretty maid, who refused his addresses, 

 cut off her head, which being hung upon a Yew tree till 

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

 only while the virgin's head hung on it, but as long as 

 the tree itself lasted : to which the people went in pil- 

 grimage, plucking and bearing away branches of it, as an 

 holy relique, whilst there remained any of the trunk ; 

 persuading themselves that those small veins and fila- 

 ments, resembling hairs, between the bark and body of 

 the tree, 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, which imports 

 holy hair. 11 



Wordsworth gives an admirable description of some 

 Yews of large size, in which he mentions the extreme 

 slowness of their growth : 



