A N T I QJU I T I E S 
L E T T E R V. 
In the church-yard of this village is zyew-tree, whofe afped be- 
fpeaks it to be of a great age : it feems to have feen feveral 
centuries, and is probably coeval with the church, and therefore 
may be deemed an antiquity : the body is fquat, Ihort, and thick, 
and meafures twenty-three feet in the girth, fupporting an head of 
fuitablc extent to it's bulk. This is a male tree, which in the 
fpring Iheds clouds of duft, and fills the atmofphere around with 
it's farina. 
As far as we have been able to obferve, the males of this fpccles 
become much larger than the females; and it has fo fallen out 
that moft of the yew-trees in the church-yards of this neighbour- 
hood are males : but this muft have been matter of mere accident, 
fince men, when they firft planted yews, little dreamed that there 
were fexes in trees. 
In a yard, in the midft of the flreet, till very lately grew a 
middle-fized female tree of the fame fpecies, which commonly 
bore great crops of berries. By the high winds ufually prevailing 
about the autumnal equinox, thefe 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 fows found no 
inconvenience from this food, yet milch-fows often died after fuch 
a repaft : a circumilance that can be accounted for only by 
fuppofing that the latter, being much exhaufted and hungry, 
devoured a larger quantity. 
While 
