478 
THE ANTIQUITIES 
[LETT. 
LETTEE V. 
In the churcliyard of this village is a yew-tree, whose aspect 
bespeaks it to be of a great age : it seems to have seen several 
centuries, and is probably coeval with the church, and therefore 
may be deemed an antiquity : the body is squat, short, and 
thick, and measures twenty-three feet in the girth, supporting a 
head of suitable extent to its bulk. This is a male tree, which 
in the spring sheds clouds of dust, and fills the atmosphere 
around with its farina. 
As far as we have been able to observe, the males of this 
species become much larger than the females ; and it has so 
fallen out that most of the yew-trees in the churchyards of this 
neighbourhood are males : but this must have been matter of 
mere accident, since men, w^hen they first planted yews, little 
dreamed that there were sexes in trees. 
In a yard, in the midst of the street, till very lately grew 
a middle-sized female tree of the same species, which commonly 
bore great crops of berries. By the high winds usually prevail- 
ing about the autumnal equinox, these berries, then ripe, were 
blown down into the road, where the hogs ate them. And it 
was very remarkable, that, though barrow -hogs and young sows 
found no inconvenience from this food, yet milch-cows often 
died after such a repast : a circumstance that can be accounted 
for only by supposing that the latter, being much exhausted 
and hungry, devoured a larger quantity. 
While mention is making of the bad eftects of yew-berries, it 
may be proper to remind the unwary, that the twigs and leaves 
of yew, though eaten in a very small quantity, are certain 
death to horses and cows, and that in a few minutes. A horse 
tied to a yew hedge, or to a faggot stacl^ of dead yew, shall be 
found dead before the owner can be aware that any danger is at 
hand : and the writer has been several times a sorrowful witness 
to losses of this kind among his friends ; and in the island of 
Ely had once the mortification to see nine young steers or 
bullocks of his own all lying dead in a heap from browzing a 
