HAMPSHIRE YEWS 47 



Norman church. On the declaration of peace, and the 

 departure of the prisoners in 1814, the churchwardens, 

 so we learn from their account-book, planted a new yew- 

 tree in the place of the one destroyed. The tree is 

 therefore over one hundred years old, and the trunk 

 now measures 7 feet 2 inches in circumference. It will 

 probably not be very much larger a century hence. 



It is a curious fact that while the yew-tree is so 

 common on the mainland of the county as to have 

 gained for it the name of " the Hampshire weed," it is 

 exceedingly scarce in the Isle of Wight. Although the 

 geological conditions are practically identical, yet the 

 downs of the island are almost entirely destitute of 

 yews. There are one or two trees on the chalk down 

 above Nunwell, and that is all. This doubtless accounts 

 for the fact that the yew is almost entirely absent from 

 the island churchyards. I can only recall a single in- 

 stance of a yew-tree in any of the churchyards of the 

 Isle of Wight. 



