HURSTBOURNE PRIORS YEW 



count over thirty stones, some very old ; many more have 

 probably perished, and there are besides many green 

 mounds. I have watched in a churchyard in the Mid- 

 lands a grave being dug under a yew, at about three 

 yards' distance from the trunk : a barrowful of roots 

 was taken out during the process. It seemed to me 

 that a very serious injury was being inflicted on the 

 tree, and it is probable that many of our very old 



churchyard yews have been dwarfed in their growth 

 by such cutting of the roots. But what shall we say of 

 the Hurstbourne Priors yew, from which not one but 

 thirty or forty barrow-loads of living roots must have 

 been taken at various times to make room for so many 

 coffins ! And what is the secret of the custom in this, 

 and probably other villages, of putting the dead so 

 close to or under the shelter of the tree ? 



Compare this Hurstbourne Priors yew, and many 



