The Story -Book of the Fields 



sacredness of the spot protects them from 

 the assaults of man, that trees live to a great 

 age. Two yew-trees situated in the cemetery 

 of La Haie de Routot, in the Department of 

 Eure, deserve special attention. In 1832 

 they still shaded with their dark foliage the 

 whole of the burying-ground and part of the 

 church, when an exceptionally violent wind 

 blew down some of their branches. Yet, 

 despite this mutilation, they both remain 

 majestic in their old age. Their trunks, 

 which are quite hollow, are each nine yards 

 in circumference. Their age is supposed to 

 be fourteen hundred years. 



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