114 THE DARLEY YEW. 



this day. But for encheson* that we have none olyve that bereth 

 grene leaf, algate + therefore we take ewe iftstede of palm and 

 olyve, and beren about in processyon, and so is thys day called 

 Palm Sunday." And Dr. Hunter adds " the yew trees in the 

 Churchyards of East Kent are at this day called palms.":]: One 

 of the great ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church is the 

 blessing and distribution of " Palms " on " Palm Sunday " — the 

 last Sunday in Lent. In Ireland, the branches of the yew, which 

 is called Palm by the peasantry, are always used for this purpose. § 

 The same practice prevailed in England in Catholic times, and 

 still remains in Catholic Churches and Chapels, and yew 

 trees were often planted for this purpose near the porches of our 

 old Churches. || Enough has been said to show that yews were 

 planted opposite to the porches of Churches for some reason, and 

 the natural inference is, that such yews are not older than the 

 porches, but probably near the same age. Now Mr. Cox, in his 

 extremely clear account of Darley Church,** says that it appears to 

 have undergone a thorough renovation about the end of the 

 twelfth century, and he attributes the porch to that, period, which 

 would make it about 700 years old, and that would agree with the 

 supposition that the yew may be of that age. 



Mr. Cox says that Mr. Bowman's theory, that the Darley yew is 

 2,500 years old was "based on actual sections taken from the trunks 

 of different trees," t+ and I suppose this means from the rings in 

 them. Nothing could be more likely to lead to error. The rings 

 in a tree can only show the rate of growth of that particular tree, 

 and all they can tend to prove as to any other tree is that it may 

 perhaps have grown at a similar rate. But they have no tendency 

 whatever to show that it did not increase faster. The rings in the 

 head of the crutch that was exhibited, were so small in some parts 

 that it was very difficult, if not impossible, to count them ; and if the 

 age of another fir were calculated by them, probably it would be 

 made three times more than it really was. There is many a yew 

 springing out of the rocks in the Peak, which doubtless would 



* Cause. t However. + Evelyn, ubi supra, note. 



§ Notes and Queries, 2nd Ser., Vol. v., 391. || Ibid, 147. ** Vol. ii., 154. 



ft Ibid 171. 



