HAMPSHIRE YEWS 37 



down, or in some sequestered churchyard. " Fear and 

 trembling Hope, Silence and Foresight, Death the 

 skeleton, and Time the shadow " seem, as Wordsworth 

 said, associated with it. Who can forget his lines on 

 the yew-tree of Lorton Vale : 



"Which to this day stands singly, in the midst 

 Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore ; 

 Of vast circumference and gloom profound 

 This solitary Tree ! a living thing 

 Produced too slowly ever to decay ; 

 Of form and aspect too magnificent 

 To be destroyed." 



Hampshire can show many such lordly yew-trees. 

 The open downs around Winchester, and in the north 

 of the county, are dotted here and there with yews, 

 some of them of vast antiquity. They are frequent, 

 too, in the wide, tangled hedgerows which often border 

 some ancient track, such as the Pilgrim's Way. The 

 Roman Road, which formerly ran from Winchester to 

 Sarum, now a grassy track through a lonely stretch of 

 most attractive country, is indicated here and there by 

 yew-trees. So with the historic lane known as " the 

 king's lane," overgrown in places with brambles and 

 blackthorn along which ohe day in August, noo, the 

 body of the Red King, dripping gore all the way, was 

 borne in a " crazy two- wheeled cart of a charcoal 

 burner, drawn by a sorry nag," from the New Forest 

 to Winchester yew-trees mark its course between 

 Hursley and the cathedral city. In other parts of the 

 county, as around Selborne and Hambledon, where 

 steep " hangers " are a distinguishing feature of the 

 country-side, the dark green, almost black, foliage of 

 the yew mingles in delightful contrast with the lighter 



