HAMPSHIRE YEWS 45 



the truly noble specimen in the churchyard of South 

 Hayling. It stands near the south porch of the church, 

 which is the usual situation of our most venerable 

 churchyard yews. At a distance of four feet from the 

 ground its trunk has a circumference of 35 feet, while 

 its branches spread over a surface more than 20 yards 

 in diameter. 



Any notice of our Hampshire yews would be incom- 

 plete without mention of a few other examples of excep- 

 tional size and interest. At Hurstbourne Priors and at 

 St Mary Bourne, in the valley of the Upper Test, splendid 

 yew-trees, whose " thousand years of gloom " would 

 seem to be no exaggeration, give sombre dignity to the 

 churchyards. The church of St Mary Bourne is note- 

 worthy as possessing one of the seven Norman fonts of 

 black marble from Tournai in Belgium, which were 

 brought over to England in the second half of the twelfth 

 century, probably during the episcopate of Henry de 

 Blois, younger brother of King Stephen. Another of 

 these famous fonts stands in the nave of Winchester 

 Cathedral. It is interesting to think that the fine yew- 

 tree, then in comparative youth, standing in the church- 

 yard of St Mary Bourne, must have witnessed the 

 arrival of the massive marble font and its erection in 

 the Norman church. Other notable yew-trees are to 

 be seen in the churchyards of Warblington, of Colmer, 

 of Prior's Dean, of West Tisted, near Alton ; and of 

 Hound, near Netley Abbey. 



In comparatively modern times the age of a church- 

 yard yew is sometimes revealed by a record in the 

 parish register. Thus at St Mary Bourne we meet with 

 the entry under nth April 1759 : " For setting ye yew- 

 tree, 6s. 6d." This tree, which stands at a respectful 



