46 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



distance from its mighty neighbour, was planted over 

 the grave of one Paul Holdway, to prevent the remains, 

 so it was said, from being disturbed. Other entries with 

 reference to the planting of churchyard yews are to be 

 found in the parish records of Hurstbourne Tarrant in 

 1692, of Basingstoke in 1694 and again in 1745, of Bin- 

 stead in 1754, of Wyke near Winchester, in 1762, and 

 elsewhere. Occasionally the planting of a yew-tree 

 has associations of peculiar interest. Shortly after the 

 Restoration, Thomas Ken, the author of Our Morning 

 and Evening Hymns, afterwards Bishop of Bath and 

 Wells, was appointed by Bishop Morley to the rectory 

 of East Woodhay in the north of Hampshire. He held 

 the living only from 1669 to 1672, but he signalised his 

 residence by planting a yew-tree in the churchyard, on 

 the north side of the church. The tree is now therefore 

 nearly two hundred and fifty years old. But so slow is 

 the growth of the yew-tree, after the first hundred years, 

 that its trunk now measures only 7 feet 7 inches in cir- 

 cumference. This gives some idea of the vast age of 

 those venerable giants which can show a girth measure- 

 ment of 25 or even 30 feet. That the growth is at first 

 comparatively rapid is demonstrated by a number of 

 examples, of which the following historic instance may 

 be selected. In the churchyard of Portchester, of which 

 parish I was once the vicar, again on the north side of 

 the church, a yew-tree of respectable appearance may 

 be seen. The church stands within the Roman en- 

 closure of Portchester Castle, where, during the 

 Napoleonic wars, a large number of French prisoners 

 were confined. It appears that the smoke from the 

 French kitchens effectually destroyed the venerable 

 yew-tree which had stood for centuries beside the 



