222 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



other ancient churchyard yews .in Hampshire, with 

 that of Selborne, which albeit probably no older is 

 double their size : is it not probable that the Selborne 

 tree is the largest, best grown, and most vigorous of the 

 old yews because it has not been mutilated at its roots 

 as the others have been ? 



There is but one grave beneath or near this tree; 

 not the grave of any important person, but a name- 

 less green mound of some obscure peasant. I had often 

 looked with a feeling almost of astonishment at that 

 solitary conspicuous mound in such a place, midway 

 between the trunk of the tree and the church door, 

 wondering who it was whose poor remains had been so 

 honoured, and why it was. Then by chance I found 

 out the whole story ; but it came to me in scraps, at 

 different times and places, and that is how I will give it 

 to the reader, in fragments, in the course of the following 

 chapter. 



