268 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. on it, but as long as the tree itself lasted ; to which the people went 

 '^'^^'^^r^^ pilgrimage, plucking and bearing away branches of it, as an holy 

 reUc, whilst there remained any of the trunk ; persuading themselves, 

 that those small fine veins and filaments (resembling hairs between the bark 

 and the body of the tree) were the hairs of the virgin : But what is yet 

 stranger, the resort to this place, (then called Houton, a despicable 

 village,) occasioned the building of the now famous town of Halifax, 

 in Yorkshire, which imports Holy Hair. By this, and the like, may we 

 estimate what a world of impostures have, through craft and superstition, 

 gained the repute of holy places, abounding with rich oblations (their 

 devotas). Pliny speaks of an old Lotus tree in a grove near Kome, 

 upon which the vestals (as our nuns) were used to hang their hair cut 

 off at their profession. Lib. xvi. cap, xlvi^ 



I may not in the mean time omit what has been said of the true Taxus 

 of the ancients, for being a mortiferous plant. Dr. Belluccio, President 

 of the Medical Garden at Pisa in Tuscany, (where they have this curiosity,) 

 affirms, that when his gardeners clip it, as sometimes they do, they are 

 not able to work above half an hour at a time, it makes their heads 

 so ache. The leaves of this tree are more like the Fir ; it is very bushy, 

 and furnished with leaves from the very root, seeming rather an hedge 

 than a tree, though it grows very tall. 



person, as a powerful remedy for that disorder. The dried leaves were first employed ; and 

 a spoonful of them, mixed with brown sugar, was divided into three equal doses, which 

 the children took at seven o'clock in the evening. At eight they had each a mess of 

 pottage, prepared of butter-milk, which, having been kept several days, was become very 

 sour. No complaints-were made by the children ; nor did any bad e{Fects ensue. Two 

 days afterwards the mother collected ^re*/i leaves, and administered them in the same dose, 

 as before, and at the same hour. At eight o'clock the children breakfasted on nettle- 

 pottage, that is, oatmeal gruel with fresh nettles boiled in it, a mess well known in this 

 country. At nine, they began to be uneasy ; were chilly and listless ; yawned much ; and 

 frequently stretched out their limbs. The eldest vomited a little, and complained of 

 gripings in his belly ; but the others expressed no signs of pains. The second child died 

 at ten o'clock; the youngest about one; and the oldest at three in the afternoon. No 

 agonies accompanied their dissolution ; no swelling of the abdomen ensued ; and after 

 death they had the appearance of being in a placid sleep. These particulars I learned 

 from the unfortunate parents of the children, whose ignorance led thera too long, and too 

 fatally, to rely on the trifling and inefficacious means of relief, suggested to them by their 

 neighbours." Vol. iii. 



