yew. :>>()! 



it was formerly a despicable village called 

 Hauton ; but that the numerous pilgrimages 

 made to that place, and the great and rich 

 oblations which the superstitious left behind 

 them at the sacred yew-tree, caused the rise 

 of this town. The story relates, that an 

 amorous priest falling in love with a pretty 

 maid, who refused his addresses, cut off her 

 head ; which being hung upon a yew-tree till 

 it was rotten, the tree became so sacred, not 

 only whilst the virgin's head hung on it, but 

 as long as the tree itself lasted, that the people 

 went in pilgrimage to it, plucking and bear- 

 ing away branches of it, as a holy relic, 

 whilst there remained any of the trunk, per- 

 suading themselves that the small fine veins 

 and filaments resembling hairs, between the 

 bark and the body of the tree, were the hairs 

 of the virgin. The name of Halifax imports 

 holy hair. 



The timber of this tree is employed by the 

 cabinet-makers andinlayers, and was formerly 

 in great repute for the cogs of mills, axle-trees, 

 and the bodies of lutes, theorboes, and other 

 musical instruments. Mr. Boutcher asserts, 

 upon his own experience, that the wooden 

 parts of a bedstead of yew will not be ap- 

 proached by bugs. 



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