Nov. 5. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



447 



in the air holds a scroll, on which is inscribed, 

 "The Liturgy of the Church of England, adorned 

 with fifty-five historical cuts ; P. La Vergne del., 

 M. Van der Gucht sc." Beneath the picture, 

 " Sold by Robt. Whitledge at the Bible in Ave 

 Maria Lane, near Stationers' Hall." 



Some of the cuts are very curious, as No. 16., 

 which represents the Devil (adorned with a crown, 

 sceptre, and tail) standing on the top of a high 

 conical rock, and our Blessed Lord at a little dis- 

 tance from him. The appearance and attitude of 

 the Apostles are somewhat grotesque. One of the 

 best is St. Philip (No. 39.), who is represented as 

 a wrinkled, bearded old man, contemplating a 

 crucifix in his hand. 



No. 51, is a picture of Guy Favvkes approaching 

 the Parliament House, with a lantern in his hand. 

 A large eye is depicted in the clouds above, which 

 sheds a stream of light on the hand of the con- 

 spirator. No. 52. is " The Martyrdom of King 

 Charles I." No. 53. " The Restoration of Mon- 

 archy and King Charles II." A number of 

 cavaliers on horseback, with their conical hats and 

 long tresses, occupy the foreground of this pic- 

 ture ; the army appears in the background. This 

 is the last, though the scroll advertises fifty-five 

 cuts. 



Tlie Prefaces and Calendar are printed in very 

 small bad type. The four State Services are 

 enumerated in the Table of Contents. After the 

 State Services follow, "At the Healing;" the 

 Thirty-nine Articles, and a Table of Kindred and 

 Affinity. This edition neither contains the Ordinal 

 nor a metrical version of the Psalms. Notwith- 

 standing the date on the title-page. King George 

 is prayed for throughout the book, except in the 

 service " For the Eighth Day of March," when 

 Queen Anne's name occurs. 



Of the modern pictorial editions of the Book of 

 Common Prayer may be mentioned that of Charles 

 Knight, " illustrated by nearly seven hundred 

 beautiful woodcuts by Jackson, from drawings by 

 Harvey, and six illuminated titles ; with Explana- 

 tory Notes by the Rev. H. Stebbing," royal 8vo., 

 London, 1838; reprinted in 1846. That of Mur- 

 ray, " illuminated by Owen Jones, and illustrated 

 with engravings from the works of the great 

 masters," royal 8vo., London, 1845 ; reprinted in 

 1850 in med. 8vo. That of Whittaker in 12mo. 

 and 8vo., " with notes and illuminations." The 

 last, and by far the best, pictorial edition is that 

 of J. H. Parker of Oxford, " with fifty illustra- 

 tions ; selected from the finest examples of the 

 early Italian and modern German schools, by the 

 Rev. H. J. Rose and Rev. J. W. Burgon." 



Jarltzbekg. 



TEW-TREES IN CHURCHYARDS. 



(Vol. viii., p. 346.) 



This has long been to me a vexed question, and 

 I fear that none of your correspondents have 

 given a satisfactory answer. 



I have seen in London sprigs of yew and paint 

 willow offered for sale before Palm Sunday. At 

 this period they may, I think, be always found in 

 Covent Garden Market. I saw them last year 

 also in the greengrocers' shops at Brighton. To 

 me these are evident traces of an old custom of 

 using the yew as well as the willow. The origin 

 is to be found in the Jewish custom of carrying 

 " branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, 

 and willows from the brook " (Leviticus xxiii. 39, 

 40.). 



Wordsworth alludes to this in his sonnet on 

 seeing a procession at Chamouny : 



" The Hebrews thus carrying in joyful state 

 Tliick boughs of palm and willows from the brook, 

 March'd round the altar — to commemorate 

 How, when their course they from the desert took. 

 Guided by signs which ne'er the sky forsook, 

 They lodged in leafy tents and cabins low, 

 Green boughs were borne." 



In A Voyage from Leith to Lapland, 1851, 

 vol. I. p. 132., there is an account of the funeral of 

 the poet Oehlenschliiger. The author states, — 



" The entire avenue was strewn, according to the old 

 Scandinavian custom, with evergreen boughs of fir, and 

 bunches of fir and box, mingled in some instances with 

 artificial flowers. It is customary at all funerals to 

 strew evergreens before the door of the house where 

 the body lies, but it is only for some very distinguished 

 person indeed they are strewn all the way to the 

 burial place." 



Forby, in his East Anglican Vocabulary, says it is 

 a superstitious notion that — 



" If you bring yew into the house at Christmas 

 amongst the evergreens used to dress it, you will have 

 a death in the family before the end of the year." 



I believe the yew will be found generally on the 

 south side of the church, but always near the prin- 

 cipal entrance, easy of access for the procession on 

 Palm Sunday, and perhaps for funerals, and that 

 it was used as a substitute for the palm, and 

 coupled with " the willow from the brook," hence 

 called the palm willow. A Holt White. 



P. S. — I cannot agree with your correspondent 

 J. G. CuMMiNG, that the yew is one of " our few 

 evergreens."' I doubt our having in England any 

 native evergreen but the holly. 



The etymology of the name of the yew-tree 

 clearly shows that it was not planted In church- 

 yards as an emblem of evil, but one of immortality. 

 The name of the tree in Celtic is jubar, pronounced 

 yewar, i. e. " the evergreen head." The town of 



