The Old Yew Tree

The old yew in the churchyard at All Saints, Farringdon, Hampshire, is ancient, between 2-3,000 years old it's said. Its girth must be 3 or 4 metres across, completely hollow yet still in leaf. Gilbert White, the Selborne naturalist, was curate here for many years before he took up his post as curate at Selborne, where his house and gardens are open to the public. An old rhyme is in favour of the tree being nearer 3,000 years than 2,000:

Gilbert White was curate here,
For nearly four and twenty years
He daily rode the rural track
From Selborne to All Saints and back.
But long before he came this way,
Old Farringdon had much to say -
For is it true the hollow yew,
When Christ was born, was far from new

More recently, a local lady told us, Jane Austen used to come from her home in Chawton about a mile away to visit friends, and would sit and read inside the old yew. We thought it was a good place for a tea party but unfortunately that wasn't on offer and we had to have our 'open garden' tea in a garage across the road:) At least we were in the shade, another scorching day.