of the Yew in Churchyards. 87 



churches were built, and intertwined w T ith green boughs, on 

 the sites of druidical groves. When Augustine was sent by 

 Gregory the Great to preach Christianity in Britain, he was 

 particularly enjoined not to destroy the heathen temples, but 

 only to remove the images, to wash the walls with holy water, 

 to erect altars, &c, and so convert them into Christian churches. 

 These were the designata loca Gentilium, in which our con- 

 verted ancestors performed their first Christian worship. Llan, 

 so general a name for towns and villages in Wales, is a cor- 

 ruption of the British llwyn, a grove ; and, strictly, means an 

 enclosure, rather than a church, the places so designated being, 

 probably, the earliest inhabited spots, and also those where 

 religious rites would be celebrated. Eglwys means a Christian 

 church (ecclesia) ; and, probably, those were so called which 

 were first erected after the introduction of Christianity, and 

 not on the site of a heathen temple. wo 



But this is not the place to pursue this curious subject ; nor 

 am I competent to discuss it. I am satisfied with having 

 brought forward sufficient proofs, from the laws of nature 

 examined upon scientific principles, of the great longevity of 

 the yew ; and, as history and tradition give their concurrent 

 testimony that it was held sacred by our remotest ancestors, I 

 think we cannot avoid the conclusion, that many of the speci- 

 mens which still survive must have been planted long before 

 the first promulgation of Christianity.* Nay, some yews, still 

 standing, are probably above 3000 years old. Who, without 

 emotion, can look upon one of these primeval giants, the oldest 

 of living forms; which, after braving the storms and accidents 



gested to me whether our words kirk and church might not originate in 

 cerrig, a stone or circle of stones, the first churches having been placed 

 within these circular stone enclosures. Hence also, perhaps, caer y a camp, 

 which word is also used in some parts of Wales for the wall round a 

 churchyard. Dr. Stukeley believes that round churches are the most 

 ancient in England ; though others, I know not why, do not agree with 

 him. A circle was the most sacred symbol among the Eastern nations of 

 antiquity ; and it would be interesting to know whether the raised platform 

 within a circle of stones, which is sometimes found round our old yews, 

 as in Darley and Llanfoist churchyards, is not a remnant of this super- 

 stition, « j^fl* „.Z Aporf' 



* If the superannuated yew in Braburn churchyard, Kent, mentioned 

 by Evelyn in his Sylva, as being then (in 1660) 58 ft. 11 in. in circum- 

 ference ; or that at Crowhurst, in Surrey, which was then 30 ft. ; be still 

 standing, it would be well if some competent person would fix their age 

 by examination of actual sections: also that of the great Fortingal Yew, near 

 Loch Tay, named by Pennant, and which is still standing, or was in 1833. 

 It is also desirable that any fine old tree, of whatever kind, should be 

 measured and placed on record, with the date and any other particulars, 

 which would hereafter form valuable standards whereby to estimate their 

 future increase, and establish a general average rule. 



