48 Account of an aged Yew Tree 



excepting even the celebrated Tortworth chestnut *, or the 

 most time-worn relics of the " monarch of the forest," the 

 oak itself. It would be in vain to enquire of the inhabitants 

 about the age of the tree ; and were I express my own senti- 

 ments on the subject, I should, perhaps, appear to some as a 

 visionary enthusiast. f At all events, to this yew may with 

 propriety be applied the following beautiful lines which Cowper 

 has addressed to the Yardley Oak : — 



" Oh ! couldst thou speak, 



As in Dodona once thy kindred trees 

 Oracular, I would not curious ask 

 The future, best unknown, but at thy mouth 

 Inquisitive, the less ambiguous past ! 

 By thee I might correct, erroneous oft, 

 The clock of history ; facts and events 

 Timing more punctual, unrecorded facts 

 Recov'ring, and misstated setting right : 

 Desp'rate attempt, till trees shall speak again ! " 



The mere antiquity, however, of the tree is not so much the 

 object of my calling attention to it, as some other circum- 



* See a figure and account of the tree in Strutt's Sylva Britannica. 



•j- It may, perhaps, be objected, that I am here inferring the tree to be 

 of greater antiquity than it really is, and assigning to it a date anterior to 

 the building of the church ; whereas (it will be urged) the yew must, in 

 all probability, have been planted in the churchyard after the erection of 

 the edifice, as the usual appropriate emblem of funereal rites, &c. But may 

 it not admit of a question, whether, in some particular cases at least (I am 

 far from saying in all), the church may not have been brought to the yew 

 tree, rather than the yew tree to the church ? In ancient times, probably, 

 the yew occurred in greater abundance, as a spontaneous native plant, than 

 it does at present ; and, without doubt, its propagation and growth were 

 then far more generally and sedulously encouraged. The wood is now no 

 longer needed, as formerly, for the supply of implements for war or for the 

 chase ; and the well-known injurious effects of the foliage on cattle, at 

 least when eaten in a withered state, have doubtless tended to the extirpa- 

 tion of the tree in pastures, &c, to which our domestic animals have access. 

 I should not, therefore, be surprised to learn, that, in the " olden time," 

 the species was copiously scattered about in most parts of the country ; 

 or that, in some instances, a particular spot might have been selected rather 

 than another, for the erection of a church, among other reasons, mainly on 

 account of some yew tree that grew upon it. I am the more inclined to 

 this opinion by observing the very high antiquity of some of our church- 

 yard yews, which have the appearance of being more than coeval with the 

 churches near which they are found : in saying this, I am, of course, not 

 alluding to churches of modern erection. 



It has been suggested to me, by an able and valued antiquarian friend, 

 that, though he sees no objection to the above hypothesis, still a more 

 simple argument may be formed on the great probability, of the church 

 having undergone an ancient re-edification or alteration ; and that, perhaps, 

 an inspection of the very church in question may show certain portions, 

 pillars, e. g. windows, or doorways, supporting this conjecture. I regret 

 that I did not happen to examine Buckland church with sufficient accu- 

 racy to enable me to state how far my friend's observations may be appli- 

 cable to the present case. 



