id so, and died also:
Whether all this be but a dream, I cannot tell, but it was haply from
these lugubrous effects, that garlands of _taxus_ were usually carried
at funerals, as Statius implies in _Epicedium vernae_: However, to
prevent all funest accidents, I commend the tree only for the usefulness
of the timber, and hortulan ornament. That we find it so universally
planted in our church-yards, was doubtless some symbol of immortality,
the tree being so lasting, and always green: Our bee-masters banish it
from about their apiaries.

One thing more, whilst I am speaking of this tree; it minds me of that
very odd story I find related by Mr. Camden, of a certain amorous
clergy-man, that falling in love with a pretty maid who refus'd his
addresses, cut off her head; which being hung upon a yew-tree 'till it
was rotten, the tree was reputed so sacred, not only whilst the virgin's
head hung on it, but as long as the tree it self lasted; to which the
people went in pilgrimage, plucking and bearing away branches of it, as
an holy relique, whilst there remain'd any of the trunk left, persuading
themselves, that those small 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, that the resort to this place (then call'd
Houton) (from a despicable village) occasion'd the building of the now
famous town Hallifax, in York-shire, 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 _de voto's_).

Pliny speaks of an old lotus tree in a grove near Rome, which they
call'd _capitale_, upon which the vestals present (as our nuns) were
us'd to hang their hair cut off at their profession: Plin. lib. 16. c.
43. But that is nothing to this.

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 gardners clip it (as sometimes they
do) they are not able to work above half an hour at a time, it makes
their heads so ake: But the leaves of this tree are more like the fir,
and is very bushy, furnish'd with leaves from the very root, and seeming
rather an hedge than a tree, tho' it grow very tall.

6. This English yew-tree is easily