OF SELBORNE. 421 



the mortification to see nine young steers or bullocks of his 

 own all lying dead in a heap from browzing a little on a 

 hedge of yew in an old garden into which they had broken 

 in snowy weather. Even the clippings of a yew hedge have 

 destroyed a whole dairy of cows when thrown inadvertently 

 into a yard. And yet sheep and turkeys, and, as park- 

 keepers say, deer, will crop these trees with impunity. 



Some intelligent persons assert that the branches of yew, 

 while green, are not noxious ; and that they will kill only 

 when dead and withered, by lacerating the stomach ; but to 

 this assertion we cannot by any means assent, because, 

 among the number of cattle that we have known fall victims 

 to this deadly food, not one has been found, when it was 

 opened, but had a lump of green yew in its paunch. True it 

 is, that yew trees stand for twenty years or more in a field, 

 and no bad consequences ensue ; but at some time or other 

 cattle, either from wantonness when full, or from hunger 

 when empty (from both which circumstances we have seen 

 them perish) , will be meddling, to their certain destruction ; 

 the yew seems to be a very improper tree for a pasture field. 

 Antiquaries seem much at a loss to determine at what 

 period this tree first obtained a place in churchyards. A 

 statute passed A.D. 1307 and 35 Edward I. the title of 

 which is " Ne rector arbores in cemeterio prosternat." Now 

 if it is recollected that we seldom see any other very large 

 or ancient tree in a churchyard, but yews, this statute must 

 have principally related to this species of tree; and 

 consequently their being planted in churchyards is of much 

 more ancient date than the year 1307. 



As to the use of these trees, possibly the more respect- 

 able parishioners were buried under their shade before the 

 improper custom was introduced of burying within the body 

 of the church, where the living are to assemble. Deborah, 

 Rebekah's nurse, 1 was buried under an oak; the most 

 honourable place of interment probably next to the cave of 

 Machpelah, 2 which seems to have been appropriated to the 

 remains of the patriarchal family alone. 



1 Gen. xxxv. 8. ' 2 Gen. xxiii. 9. 



