216 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



vestige of animism, the root and essence of all that 

 is wonderful and sacred in nature. That red and 

 purple bark is the very colour of life, and this tree's 

 life, compared with other things, is everlasting. The 

 stones we set up as memorials grow worn and seamed 

 and hoary with age, even like men, and crumble to 

 dust at last; in time new stones are put in their 

 place, and these, too, grow old and perish, and are 

 succeeded by others; -and through all changes, through 

 the ages, the tree lives on unchanged. With its 

 huge, tough, red trunk: its vast, knotted arms out- 

 stretched ; its rich, dark mantle of undying foliage, 

 it stands like a protecting god on the earth, patri- 

 arch and monarch of woods ; and indeed it seems but 

 right and natural that not to oak nor holly, nor any 

 other reverenced tree, but to the yew it was given to 

 keep guard over the bodies and souls of those who 

 have been laid in the earth. 



The yew is sometimes called the " Hampshire weed," 

 on account of its abundance in the county ; if it must 

 have a second name, I suggest that the Hampshire 

 or British dragon-tree would be a better and more 

 worthy one. It would admirably fit some ancient 

 churchyard yews in the neighbourhood of Selborne, 

 especially that of Farringdon. 



In the great mass of literature concerning Gilbert 

 White, there is curiously little said about this village ; 

 yet it has one of the most interesting old churches 

 in the county the church in which White offici- 



