CHAPTER III 



HAMPSHIRE YEWS 



is no reason to doubt that the yew-tree 

 - is indigenous in this country. It is more fre- 

 quently seen in the south of England than in the north, 

 and in the counties of Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, and 

 Wiltshire, than elsewhere. And of these counties 

 Hampshire is its favourite home. Indeed it is so 

 generally met with in the uplands of Hampshire, 

 scattered singly over, the rolling chalk downs or rising 

 in majesty from some ancient hedgerow, or clinging 

 perhaps to the almost perpendicular face of one of our 

 hanging woods, that the yew has been called, not in- 

 aptly, " the Hampshire weed." Its wide distribution 

 in the county was noticed by the early botanical 

 writers. Mr John Goodyer, a famous " searcher after 

 simples," writing to the editor of the second edition of 

 Gerard's Herbal on igth December 1621, says : " In 

 Hampshire there is good plenty of yew-trees growing 

 wilde on the chalkie hills, and in church-yards where 

 they have been planted." The yew-tree is character- 

 istic of our churchyards, where many noble specimens, 

 magnificent even in decay, may be seen. In the posses- 

 sion of churchyard yews Hampshire stands undoubtedly 

 ahead of any other county. 



There is a strange fascination about a venerable yew- 

 tree standing perhaps alone in its glory on some lonely 



36 



