224 Transactions of the [Sess. 



trustworthiness of results computed with measureinents taken 

 while the tree was in this condition is not for a moment to be 

 looked for. Suppose, however, we were, with Sir Eobert, to accept 

 Barrington's 52-feet measurement, the foregoing theory of the 

 tree's growth would enable us to reduce by fully a third the 

 enormous age imputed to this Yew by the learned Baronet. The 

 time may come when occasion to do so will present itself." 



The subject of the Fortingall Yew naturally suggests the ques- 

 tion — which, indeed, has often been asked — Why are Yews so fre- 

 quently found growing in churchyards ? The ready answer has 

 usually been given, prompted by the law of association, that they 

 are thus found because of their funereal appearance : — 



" A black Yew gloomed the stagnant air." 



But other reasons are not wanting. Thus, it has been affirmed 

 that as the pagan nations of antiquity in Southern Europe adopted 

 the Cypress as the emblem of immortality, so in Northern Europe 

 the Yew had the same symbolic meaning attached to it : — 



" Oh, not for thee the glow, the bloom, 

 Who changest not in any gale, 

 Nor branding summer suns avail 

 To touch thy thousand years of gloom. " 



Another explanation, of a more utilitarian kind, is that the Yew 

 was planted thus near the parish butts, which were generally in 

 the close vicinity of the church, in order to supply wood for mak- 

 ing bows. It has further been suggested by Sir Thomas Browne, 

 the well-known author of the ' Eeligio Medici,' that sprigs of Yew 

 which had been used at funerals might have taken root, and grown 

 into churchyard trees. It is true that the custom of using Yew- 

 branches at funerals was an old one ; and of the half-dozen notices 

 of the Yew by Shakespeare,-^ one of them — that in " Twelfth 

 Night " (Act II. sc. iv.) — refers to this practice. But the objection 

 applies to all these various solutions of the problem, that most of 

 the old trees now found in churchyards were in all probability 

 planted before the existence of the parish church or burying- 

 ground ; while the Fortingall Yew, at all events, was a goodly 



1 The mention of " Hebenon " or " Hebona " by Shakespeare, Gower, 

 Spenser, and Marlowe, has given rise to much conjecture as to what " deadly 

 poison " was meant by these writers. On this point Canon EUacombe says : 

 ' ' The question has lately been very much narrowed and satisfa,ctorily settled 

 (for the present, certainly, and probably altogether) by Dr Nicholson and the 

 Rev. W. A. Harrison. These gentlemen have decided that the true reading 

 is Hebona, and that Hebona is the Yew. Their views are stated at full 

 length in two exhaustive papers contributed to the New Shakespeare Society, 

 and published in their Transactions." — ' The Plant-Lore and Garden-Craft of 

 Shakespeare,' 2d ed. (1884), p. 119. 



