266

A DISCOURSE

or noxious effects: So that I am of opinion, that the tree which Sextius'calls Smilax, and our historian thinks to be our Yew, was some otherwood; and yet I acknowledge that it is esteemed noxious to cattle whenit is in the seeds, or newly sprouting ; though I marvel there appearsno more such effects of it, both horses and other cattle being free tobrowse on it, where it naturally grows : But what is very odd, if true, isthat which the late Mr. Aubrey recounts (in his Miscellanies) ofa Gentlewoman that had long been ill, without any benefit from thephysician. She dreamed that a friend of her’s, deceased, told hermother, that if she gave her daughter a drink of Yew pounded, sheshould recover; it was accordingly given her, and she presently died.—The mother being almost distracted for the lofs of her daughter, herchamber-maid, to comfort her, said, Surely, what she gave her was notthe occasion of her death, and that she would adventure on it herself ;

In these beds they may remain two or three years, according as they have grown,when they should again be removed into the nursery, placing them in rows at three feetdistance, and the plants eighteen inches asunder in the rows; observe to do it in autumn,as was before directed, and continue to trim them in the summer season, according to thedesign for which they are intended; and after they have continued three or four years inthis nursery, they may be transplanted where they are to remain ; always observingto remove them in autumn, when intended for dry ground, but for cold moist land thespring is the better season.

These trees, though of slow growth, do sometimes arrive at a. considerable size. Mr.Pennant mentions one in Fontingal churchyard, in the Highlands of Scotland , whose ruinsmeasured fifty-six feet and a half in circumstance.

Of the Yew there is a variety with short leaves, which appears very ornamentalin plantations. There is also another with striped leaves, of great value amongst thevariegated tribes. These are increased by layers, but the striped sort must be plantedupon a barren soil, otherwise it will become plain

In the days of Archery', so great was the demand for the wood of the Yew-tree, that themerchants were obliged by statute to import four staves of it for every ton of goods comingfrom places where bow-staves had formerly been brought. In those antient days theYew was planted in churchyards, where it stood a substitute for the Invisa Cufirefsus. Italso was placed near houses, where it might be ready for the sturdy bows of our warlikeAncestors,

--- “ who drew,

“ And almost joined, the horns of the tough Yew .”

Mr. Pennant informs us that this tree is to be found in its native state upon the hills thatbound the waters of the Winander, and on the face of many precipices of different places