Poison.

 The orphaned lambs which have, in recent weeks, been  penned on the wide verge in the centre of the village, have proved a source of interest and delight to many villagers, young and old. It is sad therefore that I have to report that one of them was poisoned and became very ill through, no doubt, well meaning children, who thought it was a good idea to give them some of the plentiful 'Cow Parsely' growing in the nearby stream.  Unfortunately what they picked wasn't the innocuous Cow Parsely but the very poisonous Hemlock Water Dropwort, Oenanthe crocata  which grows profusely all along the South Winterborne stream in the village,

 

   Hemlock Water Dropwort.  Photo. John M Elliott

                                                                                                Click on iage to enlarge.

 The very similar Hemlock, Conium maculatum, which history relates caused the death of Socrates, also grows along the stream down the Weymouth Road, and is also poisonous. It may be told from the Hemlock Water Dropwort by the small purple blotches on the stems.

The lamb, fortunately , recovered from the poisoning. A Labrador in Dorchester which ate the roots of Hemlock Water Dropwort a year or two ago didn't.