40 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



popular imagination, the tree was so venomous that 

 " the fruit thereof being eaten is not onely dangerous 

 and deadly unto man, but if any doe sleepe under the 

 shadow thereof it causeth sicknesse and oftentimes 

 death." It is interesting to notice that this opinion 

 was too much for even old Gerard, the herbalist, whose 

 work is full of strange conceits and startling supersti- 

 tions. After mentioning the vulgar belief, he goes on to 

 say : " All which I dare boldly affirme is altogether un- 

 true ; for when I was yong and went to schoole, divers 

 of my schoole-fellowes and likewise my selfe did eat our 

 fils of the berries of this tree, and have not onely slept 

 under the shadow thereof, but among the branches also, 

 without any hurt at all, and that not one time, but 

 many times." The same testimony is borne by the 

 early botanist, L'Obel ; and Sir Thomas Browne, in his 

 Vulgar Errors, boldly declares : " That yew and the 

 berries thereof are harmlesse, we know/' It should, 

 however, be added that, in spite of these emphatic 

 assertions cases are on record of children being poisoned 

 by yew berries, although it appears that the mischief 

 was rather due to the hard, green seeds than to the 

 succulent scarlet covering. To cows and horses the 

 tree is a deadly poison, as many farmers have found to 

 their cost, and even the clippings of a yew hedge thrown 

 inadvertently into a yard have been known to destroy 

 a whole dairy of cows. And yet, strange to say, as 

 Gilbert White has pointed out, " sheep and turkeys and, 

 as park-keepers say, deer, will crop these trees with 

 impunity." 



But noted as Hampshire is for the prevalence of 

 indigenous yew-trees scattered throughout the country, 

 it is no less remarkable for its churchyard yews. In 



