300 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



mortification to see nine young steers or bullocks of his own all 

 lying dead in an heap from browsing a little on an hedge of yew in 

 an old garden, into which they had broken in snowy weather. 

 Even the clippings of a yew hedge have destroyed a whole dairy 

 of cows when thrown inadvertently into a yard. And yet sheep 

 and turkeys, and, as park-keepers say, deer will crop these trees 

 with impunity. 



Some intelligent persons assert that the branches of yew, while 

 green, are not noxious ; and that they will kill only when dead and 

 withered, by lacerating the stomach ; but to this assertion we 

 cannot by any means assent, because among the number of cattle 

 that we have known fall victims to this deadly food, not one has 

 been found, when it was opened, but had a lump of green yew in 

 its paunch. True it is, that yew-trees stand for twenty years or 

 more in a field, and no bad consequences ensue ; but at some time 

 or other cattle, either from wantonness when full, or from hunger 

 when empty (from both which circumstances we have seen them 

 perish), will be meddling, to their certain destruction ; the yew 

 seems to be a very improper tree for a pasture-field. 



Antiquaries seem much at a loss to determine at what period this 

 tree first obtained a place in church-yards. A statute passed 

 A.D. 1307 and 35 Edward I. the title of which is "Ne rector 

 arbores in cemeterio prosternat." Now if it is recollected that we 

 seldom see any other very large or ancient tree in a church-yard 

 but yews, this statute must have principally related to this species 

 of tree ; and consequently their being planted in church- yards is 

 of much more ancient date than the year 1 307. 



As to the use of these trees, possibly the more respectable 

 parishioners were buried under their shade before the improper 

 custom was introduced of burying within the body of the church, 

 where the living are to assemble. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, * was 

 buried under an oak; the most honourable place of interment 

 probably next to the cave of Machpelah,f which seems to have 

 been appropriated to the remains of the patriarchal family alone. 



The farther use of the yew-trees might be as a screen to churches, 

 by their thick foliage, from the violence of winds ; perhaps also 

 for the purpose of archery, the best long bows being made of that 

 material ; and we do not hear that they are planted in the church- 

 yards of other parts of Europe, where long bows were not so much 



* Gen. xxxv 8. t Gen. xxiii. 9. 



